Kolibree is announcing what it calls the world’s first connected electric toothbrush today. It sounds pretty weird, but Kolibree says it can analyze your brushing habits and display them on a mobile dashboard that you can access from your phone. The idea is to motivate you, or shame you, into brushing better.
For $99, it had better be good. The Paris-based company unveiled the electric toothbrush at the 2014 International CES, the huge tech tradeshow in Las Vegas this week. It sounds nuts, but no more so than the Hapifork connected fork that debuted at CES last year.
Yes, the Internet of things is even coming to your mouth.
You download a free mobile app and connect your smartphone to the toothbrush via Bluetooth wireless. It records every brushing and syncs the information to your smartphone. Then you can use the app to see whether you brushed long enough and reached the hard-to-hit but important parts of your teeth and gums.
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You get a score for your brushing and can share those stats with your dentist or your family. But if you share this data too widely, it will clearly be in the “too much information” category. Kolibree rewards your progress when you are improving. The company will make the brushing data available via an applications programming interface so third-party game designers can create games around it.
The toothbrush should be available in the fourth quarter. You can start preordering it this summer, initially through a Kickstarter campaign. The device will range from $99 to $200, depending on the model.
Check out a chat with Kolibree’s founders by VentureBeat national editor Devindra Hardawar:
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