Playbrush goes on sale to help kids brush their teeth by playing games on their phone

Playbrush, a smart contraption that turns any toothbrush into a game controller, is on sale from today.

The London-based company that makes the device raised £40,000 ($60,000) of its £35,000 ($52,000) goal via Kickstarter.

VentureBeat tried out a prototype of the product back in April — essentially a little blue dongle that contains a motion-sensing chip. This can be fitted to any toothbrush and tracks the movement of your brush while connecting to a game on your phone over Bluetooth.

Playbrush develops the hardware and the software.

Above: Playbrush

Through a series of games, Playbrush tracks brushing regularity (twice a day), duration (2-3 minutes), and accuracy (brushing in every corner of the mouth), and gives you a score. It basically gamifies your oral hygiene.

Above: Playbrush

The product has changed a lot since we first went hands-on with the device seven months ago. “We implemented much of the testing feedback of the over 300 tests we did, and it is now really cool,” said company founder Paul Varga. “The hardware is now way smaller, lighter and more robust.”

There are three color variations to choose from — blue, pink, and green — and Playbrush is now certified to sell the product in Europe, the U.S., and Canada.

There have been quite a few other attempts at creating a smart toothbrush — Kolibree launched a connected brush, while Grush rolled out something similar around the same time. But Playbrush is different insofar as it hasn’t developed a smart toothbrush — it has built a contraption that can be retrofitted to any toothbrush.

Playbrush is shipping its units to those who pre-ordered on Kickstarter from today, though anyone can buy one now from its online store. Though it will ship globally, prices are only available in GBP (UK) and euros. A standalone Playbrush unit costs €49, which is roughly the same as what it will cost in U.S. dollars on conversion. We’re told the company plans to launch a U.S. web store in time for CES in January.

Meanwhile, here’s a quick demo of how Playbrush looks in action: