Two fathers of second children created a "learning magic tool".

The annual back-to-school season is approaching, and along with it come more and more intelligent learning devices on children's desks.

Dictionary pens, listening and speaking devices, learning machines, wrong question printers... Each type of device solves a certain type of problem, but also brings new troubles: the functions of the devices are fragmented, children have to switch between different scenarios tediously, and parents also feel exhausted from constantly purchasing new devices.

"There are too many learning hardware devices for children nowadays. The data between the devices is not connected, and the texts, exercises, synchronous learning materials, and wrong question collections are all independent of each other," said Wu Yusheng, the president of Alpha Egg. "So we've always been thinking about whether we can use a simpler way to meet children's learning needs in different scenarios?"

Based on this insight, Alpha Egg is bringing a brand - new product to be officially launched this back - to - school season - the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6, which is targeted at the K12 stage (primary school to high school) of school - age education.

Photo of the Alpha Egg Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6

Different from Alpha Egg's flagship product, the "Dictionary Pen", the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 has a wider screen. It uses a 5 - inch screen, and the body size is 56.75mm * 15.6mm * 126.95mm, similar to a mobile phone. It also has both scanning and shooting functions, with a battery capacity of 1900mAh. It can last for a week on a full charge under normal usage frequency.

More importantly, the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 fills the gap in the "high - frequency portable multi - scenario learning machine" niche between the "Dictionary Pen" and the "Learning Machine". It integrates six commonly used functions of a dictionary pen, a learning machine, an AI listening and speaking device, an audio reader, a translator, and a student camera into one. While solving multi - scenario learning problems on a single device, it enhances the portability and immediacy of the learning device, enabling "learning at your fingertips".

"The Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 is complementary to traditional learning machines. A traditional learning machine is like a 'tablet computer', suitable for children to study systematically at home, in front of their desks. The K6 is like a 'learning mobile phone', which children can use anytime and anywhere. Its input methods (scanning + shooting) are also more convenient and can solve problems immediately," Liu Qingsheng, the chairman of Alpha Egg, told 36Kr.

Group photo of Liu Qingsheng, the chairman of Taoyun Technology, and Wu Yusheng, the president

Liu Qingsheng and Wu Yusheng are not only the "masterminds" behind the Alpha Egg Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6, but also two "second - child fathers" who are equally concerned about their children's studies. They have their own personalities and educational concepts, but like thousands of parents, they have the same love, face the same difficulties, and are thinking about the same solutions.

Behind the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 is the effort of these two "second - child fathers" from the University of Science and Technology of China and the "Mom and Dad Legion" within the Alpha Egg team.

"The Loving Hearts of Parents"

As an "invisible unicorn" in the intelligent education hardware track, Alpha Egg has become a top - level player in the dictionary pen track. It once created an industrial miracle of "30 - fold revenue growth in 4 years", and its revenue has long exceeded one billion yuan. It has rich experience in creating intelligent education hardware. (See 36Kr's previous report "This Low - key Anhui Enterprise Has Become an 'Invisible Unicorn' in Children's Artificial Intelligence Hardware".)

The birth of the Alpha Egg Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 can be traced back to two years ago.

"Two years ago, we started to conceive the R & D of the full - screen (dictionary pen), but the technical conditions were not mature at that time. Later, we spent more than a year on technical accumulation, including the recognition algorithms for multi - line scanning, camera fisheye distortion, color picture books, and a series of technical reserves for the full - screen 'what you see is what you scan'. After collecting enough user feedback on their needs, we organized a R & D team of nearly 100 people, invested a large amount of R & D funds, and began to gradually confirm the product functions and morphological details of the K6," said Wu Yusheng.

The opportunity for the birth of this new product form of the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 can be traced back to some "chaotic" little anecdotes of Alpha Egg's two "second - child fathers" tutoring their children with homework.

Every year when the summer vacation is coming to an end, short videos on the Internet such as "Even a Peking University professor collapses when tutoring his child's homework" and "A teacher with many excellent students at school has trouble with his own child at home" become popular again in the information stream. Parents in front of the screen find them both funny and sad - and the two founders of Alpha Egg are no exception.

Liu Qingsheng and Wu Yusheng are both excellent science and engineering graduates from the University of Science and Technology of China. However, they also used to worry about tutoring their children with homework in the early years.

For example, when Wu Yusheng was a "new father" and had not yet accumulated enough educational experience, when his eldest son came to him for help with junior high school math, physics, and chemistry homework problems, Wu Yusheng always solved the problems quickly and correctly. However, he inadvertently dampened the child's enthusiasm for self - learning and self - growth, and instead made the child less and less interested in math, physics, and chemistry.

At that time, Wu Yusheng had not yet grown into the "veteran in children's education" he is today, but he also keenly discovered the problem in the communication with his child.

After that, Wu Yusheng began to consciously nurture the child's interest in independent growth and problem - solving. He only taught the thinking methods instead of giving the answers directly, which made the child accumulate a sense of achievement in the process of constantly solving difficult problems. In high school, the child even got a full score in math, which made Wu Yusheng very gratified.

"Our Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 supports the scanning and checking of difficult problems in nine subjects including Chinese, mathematics, English, politics, history, geography, physics, chemistry, and biology. Moreover, it introduces a step - by - step question - answering process with the help of the AI large - model. However, we insist on not giving the answers directly, but breaking down the logic of the questions step by step to help children clarify their thinking. We want to train children to develop problem - solving thinking gradually and truly improve their willingness to learn," said Wu Yusheng.

Schematic diagram of the step - by - step solution for difficult problem scanning and checking on the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6

Compared with Wu Yusheng, Liu Qingsheng is a more "laid - back" father. Sometimes, he even chooses to "be lazy with his children".

When his eldest daughter was learning the guzheng, Liu Qingsheng didn't rigidly require her to practice every day. As long as she could pass the teacher's "assessment" in the next class, he let her arrange her own practice time. When his youngest son was assigned homework far beyond the ability of a first - grader during the summer vacation of primary school, Liu Qingsheng didn't choose to "push the child hard", but tried every means to quickly "finish" the homework with his child.

"If we make children fear or suffer from learning, they won't want to learn in the future. Every child is at a different stage of growth. As long as they don't get tired of learning and keep their curiosity, the learning problems will be solved naturally. The essence of our learning tools is to lower the learning threshold for children and help them solve problems," Liu Qingsheng told 36Kr.

The children of Wu Yusheng and Liu Qingsheng are the "first - batch experience officers" of Alpha Egg's educational products and also the "first discoverers of user needs".

In the process of observing their children's learning, both of them found a common problem - many times, children are not unwilling to learn. It's just that they often get stuck on difficult words or weak knowledge points during the process of reviewing and doing homework. Once they get stuck, they are easily distracted, then feel frustrated, and enter a period of ineffective learning.

At this time, learning machines are too bulky, and photo input is not accurate. The screens of dictionary pens are too small, and when it comes to complex problems, children have to flip through several screens to get an answer. If there are multiple intelligent education devices at home, the data fragmentation between the devices is also a big problem - "The wrong question has already， been solved with the dictionary pen, but the child has to learn it again on the learning machine."

Protecting children's learning autonomy and solving problems with them - this is the original intention of the birth of the Alpha Egg Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 and also the underlying logic of the "Mom and Dad Legion" within the entire Alpha Egg team when making products.

"In the past, it took children more than an hour to look up words in the dictionary, check answers, and correct compositions when doing homework. Now, with a scan or a shoot, it can be done in a few minutes. The extra time can be used to develop hobbies or for the whole family to go outdoors and get close to nature," said Liu Qingsheng.

In fact, according to the research of Dr. Kristine Engemann from Aarhus University in Denmark, children who spend their childhood in outdoor green environments have a surprisingly 55% lower risk of developing psychological problems such as anxiety and depression in adulthood, and their cognitive and immune systems develop significantly better.

This is the loving hearts of parents.

"One Device Replaces Six"

As mentioned above, the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 is more like a "palm - sized learning machine", suitable for high - frequency, portable, and multi - scenario learning. Its input methods are more convenient than traditional learning machines, and it is more suitable to carry around. Compared with dictionary pens, it is more suitable for the interaction and presentation of complex answers.

What's more attractive is its advantage of data connectivity, which means "one device replaces six".

Wu Yusheng told 36Kr that the new characters scanned by children will be automatically associated with the texts, and the content of the scanned texts will be automatically associated with the text - listening function of the listening and speaking device. "They are not just six isolated devices. There is data connectivity between them for learning, and there is no need for repeated selection, which can help children improve their learning efficiency."

This simple data connectivity can greatly enhance the smoothness of children's learning experience and avoid the interruption and consumption of concentration caused by the fragmentation of multiple devices and cumbersome operations.

Another highlight of the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 is that it cancels the glass window and innovatively realizes the "what you see is what you scan" function with a full - screen design.

Schematic diagram of the "what you see is what you scan" function of the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6

People familiar with educational hardware know that there is usually a small glass window at the tip of a traditional dictionary pen. This is a necessary hardware for traditional dictionary pens to locate the scanning position to achieve "word - by - word scanning".

However, through investigations and visits, Alpha Egg's product team learned that many users reported that this method requires high operational skills from children. Since children cannot see the scanning results in real - time, they may occasionally miss some characters or make wrong breaks when scanning long sentences or paragraphs, and need to repeat the operation, which disrupts the normal learning experience.

Can children scan at any time and the machine present the results on the screen immediately, realizing "what you see is what you scan"?

This requirement seems simple, but in fact, it poses quite a challenge.

Firstly, the most difficult problem to overcome is the camera fisheye distortion caused by extreme close - up shooting. Secondly, there are problems such as image trajectory capture, real - time stitching, and OCR recognition. There are also trade - off problems between the performance and power consumption of the processor due to advanced image algorithms, and so on.

Alpha Egg's team spent more than a year researching and developing a series of problems related to software, hardware, algorithms, systems, and power consumption. Finally, they overcame this problem this year and successfully removed the glass window from the Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6. It has become the first learning machine product in the industry to realize the "what you see is what you scan" function, allowing children to see the scanning results in real - time and making the operation more intuitive and reducing children's sense of frustration during learning.

In addition to the innovation in hardware and interaction mode, software and content are even more important for educational products.

The Scan & Shoot Learning Machine K6 supports the query of 119 textbook versions for all subjects and 103 genuine dictionaries. It also has built - in the main books recommended by the new curriculum standards, a total of more than 1000 books, and its 5 - inch screen is suitable for reading. It supports synchronous learning of primary and secondary school textbooks, synchronous video courses, homework tutoring and question - answering, offline Chinese - English translation, and is equipped with synchronous video courses for primary and secondary schools and special improvement courses for vocabulary, speaking, reading, grammar, etc. It has a question bank of 1 billion questions for all subjects and AI question - answering and knowledge point query for 9 subjects.

More importantly, in the current era when the business model of "subsidizing hardware and charging for content" is popular across the network, Alpha Egg has taken the lead in launching the business model of "buying the hardware outright, free for life, and no secondary charges". Whether it is the existing content or the subsequent function upgrades, all are free for users who purchase the hardware.

When facing the currently most popular AI large - model technology, the Alpha Egg team is both active and cautious.

Firstly, there is no doubt that the AI large - model technology brings an innovative, even revolutionary, innovation in the human - machine interaction experience. It has made many educational ideas of Alpha Egg's curriculum team a reality.

For example, regarding the problem of English speaking that many Chinese students find headache - inducing, the Alpha Egg team had previously found that many children have problems such as mixing Chinese and English during practice, having correct sentence expressions but grammar errors, and getting "stuck" during conversations. These small obstacles often make children discouraged and even develop an aversion to "speaking English".

In response to these problems, the Alpha Egg team has made a series of innovations in AI speaking practice.

Firstly, the Alpha Egg team pioneered the "picture - based guided conversation method", which enables younger children to practice English speaking in a simpler and more interesting way. For example, when clicking on the theme of animal practice, an image will immediately appear on the screen, and the machine will ask the child "What’s this?" The child can answer "it is a fox" while looking at the picture.

The AI system can praise the child when the answer is correct, correct and encourage the child in time when the answer is wrong, and provide timely guidance and prompts when the child can't answer. Even the child can ask questions in Chinese