The virtual pet that takes care of your study

Kotohi helps you study flashcards! You will learn new things all in one small device that cannot open Instagram.

estimated price! Help us make it a reality by filling in your email in the field below ~

Study

Flashcard study, away from your phone

Kotohi is a handy device with only 4 buttons, with its focus on helping you study and have fun while doing so. Pick it up any time and review flashcards ~ Kotohi will pick when to show them to you again if you consider a card Easy or Hard!

Easily use your phone or a PC to transfer flashcards into it via Bluetooth or the SD card. Otherwise the device doesn't have Wi-Fi on its own, so it always works when it's with you!

Care

A study buddy you look after

Kotohi lives on the screen. Please take care of them by studying every day. Play games, feed them, clean them and watch them learn with you! This way learning is always fun!

Focus

Pomodoro focus timer

When you want to focus away from your smart devices, use Kotohi to keep time for you. You pick how much time, then focus on your task without any distractions! Kotohi will keep you company the whole time as you study ~

Memotechnics in development

Helps you with hard to remember cards

Prepare mnemonics for your subject. If you need one, the tip will come up to remind you of your rules ~ Next time it comes up, you'll be ready for it!

Decks

Unlimited decks, in folders

Organise your study easily into folders. Review a full topic at a time or a specific deck, that's up to you ~ Works with Anki decks, PDFs or a bulk import from a text file. Supports images and all! Without any limit or subscription ~

Colourful and personal

Retro inspired and all kinds of fun! Carry it around or leave it on your desk with the included dock. It will help you memorise your studies just the same ~

Five kotohi devices in a row — charcoal, pink, green, blue and pale grey — each with a different flashcard on screen: an oxygen chemistry card, a music-notation card, the kanji for mountain, a criminal-law card and a labelled skull.

Cool! But who are you and why are you making this?

Hi! Thanks for asking :) We are a small team of 3 people making this device. Two of us are language learners, and we also have a language teacher. Using flashcards for studying languages is one of the most effective methods for the vast vocabulary that must be learned. But in today's world, it's very hard to put everything away and focus on learning new things. So we thought a dedicated device would help us do just that, and bring back the memories of virtual pets that we can have fun with.

Right now we are just collecting emails, and it would help us a lot if you shared this page! If we get to our email goal we'll try making a Kickstarter for it, to be able to place a big order for the components of the device. Feel free to let us know if you have any feedback, and for sure try the beta! It runs in your browser on basically the same firmware we've been testing, so you can still study and try if you'd like it or not. Of course it's not the same if you just have it on your phone, so stay tuned for news!

FAQ

Can you make it with an e-ink display?

Yes, we'd love to! Eventually at least, we are a team of 3 so it takes time :) We would love to have a slimmer version with e-ink that lasts way longer. But we wanted a version that would be able to handle cute animations and colour for studying with images. For sure, let us know if you'd want one.

Is it open source?

Yeah, that's the plan. We want to publish the files anyway, in case anybody wants to 3D print their own case or change up the firmware :)

Can it load Anki decks?

Yes, we have a few ways of importing them, depending on how elaborate they are. You can try it out on the beta and let us know of any feedback if you try it!

Can it load decks from other applications?

We are hoping to make importers for the most common formats. If you have one deck that doesn't import nicely, just let us know and we'll try to get to it.

Will you have more characters?

That's the plan :) But art takes time, so let us cook and we'll get there. We'll also make it open source, so people can make their own custom characters and animations! Just be warned, it's quite a bit of work!

Are you sure you can build this?

We have some experience making products :) On the team there is an electronics engineer who can code. And we know enough 3D modelling and 3D printing to be able to make the prototype and make manufacturing possible. So leave it up to us!