Bino: Transforming education for Generation Alpha
Bino is an augmented reality-based app which helps students visualize all the characters and objects from their paper-based books
Like most of the Generation Alpha, Radin Yusuf (3), likes playing games on the smartphone. As he will be shortly attending preschool, Radin's Parents Shiuly Akhtar and Yousuf Abdullah want to engage him more with books instead of gadgets and apps. But little Radin struggles to keep his interest on the pages. And why won't he? Who doesn't like the moving, talking images more than the still photos in the books?
Radin's parents came across some interactive books published by Bino from Microtech Interactive. The books have pages full of knowledge as well as interactive graphics.
Bino is an augmented reality-based app on Android and iOS platforms for simulating 3D models, generated with a series of 2D images, in a real environment. This is a mobile application, which helps students visualize all the characters and objects from their paper-based books.
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The best part is that Radin loves it when elements of the books come alive.
"Before understanding Bino, we need to understand Augmented Reality (AR). It is the technology that expands our physical world, adding layers of digital information onto it. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), AR does not create the whole artificial environments to replace real with virtual one" explained Mashnoon Kibria, the CEO of Bino.
"With Bino, we combined the traditional and futuristic methods of gaining knowledge. When we use the Bino App on the book, AR appears through the smartphone screen and adds sounds, videos, and graphics to the contents of the books" Kibria added.
Bino is the most popular projects of Microtech Interactive Ltd. The company started the project with the name "Nilimar Bioscope" in 2016. The final product of the project was launched at the 2017 Ekhushey Boi Mela by the name "Bino".
The team of Bino includes experienced teachers, consultants, award winning artists and programmers who all came under one roof for the passion of educational innovation. This talented team has bagged many prestigious awards like National Mobile Application Award 2016, Basis National Awards 2017, UNICEF Best Internet Content for Children for Bino, etc.
"We have experienced or seen our family dealing with children's lack of interest in the educational curriculum and addiction to smartphones. That is why we came up with the idea of making traditional book-based learning more fun and magical to increase the popularity of books among the new generation. And that is how Bino Started," said Tushar Kumar Saha, Project and Marketing Manager of Bino.
"This is not a new concept for the world. AR books are very popular in other countries and people can even buy them here in Bangladesh. But those books are very expensive as one has to purchase the book as well as the specific app for the book. We made Bino affordable and easy for everyone to use," Saha further said.
The Bino app is completely free on Android and iOS platforms, and the books and flashcards cost within Tk150 to Tk500. Currently, Bino has 10 books and four packages for children of different age groups. The books are available for purchase through their website.
Bino books are also available on many e-commerce platforms like Rokomari, Daraz, Chaldal, Evaly, Othoba and book stores like Pathok Shomabesh, Bengal Books, Batighor, etc.
Bino has books on Bangla, English and Arabic alphabets and numbers.It also has drawing books.. There are also some informative flashcards on dinosaurs and planets, and storybooks such as the Bino Superhero series "Dada Vai" and "Firefighter".
According to Nazmul Islam, the Senior Software Developer of Bino, they are planning to launch 15 new books in the upcoming Ekushey Boi Mela, 2021. The team is planning to include more storybooks and an educational curriculum for primary classes.
Bino team is also working on two big projects - AR lab for students as many schools don't have proper labs, which is a must for our educational curriculum, and Bino Tab. The team is also in the process of developing tables for children, designed especially for educational purposes.
According to Tushar Kumar Saha, Project and Marketing Manager, the company surely experience some bump in the road, especially during the time of this ongoing pandemic, but that has now been covered up with the introduction of e-commerce platforms where bino books are hugely popular among parents.
With so many new projects and developments, Bino is looking forward to a successful business year ahead in 2021.
