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Ask Slashdot: Skype Setup For Toddler's Room?
New submitter mmmmdave writes "My parents love to Skype with my kid. My kid loves to mash laptop buttons and drool on the screen. And because we don't want to spend forty minutes every night holding the laptop outside of baby arms' length, we're looking to build some sort of wall-mounted monitor + webcam thingy. I'm sure there's a much cheaper option than sticking an iPad on the wall; what's more, non-touchscreen is probably better, so my daughter can't hang up the calls. Any ideas?"
40 minutes of your parents talking to your baby daughter every night? I can't imagine that. Is your last name Focker?
this must be the lamest ask /. I've ever seen.
If only you could buy a box, that when plugged into a computer and peripherals, was just like a laptop, except it didn't use batteries and wasn't portable and was cheap. Why, I bet you could place a technological marvel like that on a desk, instead of on a lap like a laptop. I'm sure marketing can come up with a good name like the ideskbook or the desk-ster or the e-mini-desk or the deskr or maybe the socialdesk or something like that. Hmm like a laptop but instead of sitting on a lap it sits on a desk... what could that be called... Naw I got nothin' Sorry. Good luck dude!
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
wall-mounted monitor + webcam
Mount a LCD monitor on the wall or put it out of arms reach of the kid on a dresser with a webcam and some cheap PC speakers. Put the computer farther away using a 10ft VGA/HDMI cable.
Why make it so complex, does your toddler really need to touch the screen?
Also, nothing like exposing your kids to the benefits of watching TV when they're still in the crib. Instead of TV being the "new babysitter", it'll be skype.
we're looking to build some sort of wall-mounted monitor + webcam thingy
So, um, grab a monitor and a webcam, and mount them to the wall...
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I can think of no better example of a first world problem than this!!
You must not be a parent. The parents *are* there. The OP mentions holding the laptop. You try holding a laptop in front of a child and see what happens. I bet they spend more time hitting buttons than interacting with the people on the screen. Because this is what my kid does too. This is the problem the OP is trying to solve. A parent saying "don't touch that" and restraining hands isn't much fun for the kid. A setup that has the hardware transparent to the kid will be fun.
I'd go with a TV displaying from the laptop and webcam mounted on top of the TV. I have been meaning to set this up for my kid, but have stalled (it's the in-laws that skype, not my family :P) Maybe get an older HD CRT that is safer for the kid to touch. (Our kid manhandles our CRT TV all the time, and it's fine.) I don't know if you'll want a 20' display cable (HDMI or VGA), or something wireless. I'd try VGA because I have that option and it's cheaper. The cable itself won't be too interesting across the floor, so I imagine you don't need to route it all fancy. At least, that is what I have been planning to do.
Son. Of. A. Bitch. This is the second time in two days I've clicked on a slashdot link to read the comments, hoping desperately that it wouldn't be full of the usual dreck, only to be disappointed. I was hoping that somebody would have something useful to suggest, since we also have a toddler that would love Skyping with his grandparents but that we can't use a laptop with because he'll button-mash all the settings into something unusable. The plexiglass could be a good possibility, perhaps a setup to protect the keyboard so he can see the screen easily but can't actually *get* to the trouble-causing buttons.
But for the rest, we get jokes about putting the baby in a box, combined with complaints about how the OP is a horrible parent for wanting to let their kid talk to the grandparents every night. OMG! Parents actually want to help extended family to be involved with their child! Call the cops immediately!
This happens every time I click on a slashdot comments link, it seems. Why aren't all of you people over on reddit or 4chan or something; I thought it was generally accepted there that having absolutely NOTHING to contribute on a topic but doing so anyway was considered a badge of high honor?
There are a lot of 1984/Truman Show/No Real Parent posts on this thread. Folks, understand that for some families, grandma and grandpa are a time zone away at best, and a grandkid is lucky to see her grandparents in person once a year, if that. Skype/videophone is a fantastic way to help bridge that gap. My parents can read our daughter stories. My wife's parents can sing songs with our daughter. They can see each other and interact in ways that you just can't do over the phone or with text.
Our kid is lucky--she gets to see each set of grandparents in person about twice a year. For the stretches between those times, though, she can still visit with them over Skype. It's far from perfect, but it's a huge leap ahead of a phone call, and helps all sides of the family feel closer.
You wouldn't mock people for calling their parents to let their kid talk to grandma and grandpa over the phone. Why the special hate for the extra level of closeness?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Is this what passes for Ask Slashdot submissions these days?
Buy a cheapo TFT new or second hand and mount it on the wall if you want. Buy a $10 webcam, do likewise. If you can't manage that, what the hell are you even doing here?
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap as you would any other time.
But from the summary, thats not what the parent wants - he wants to stop several very easily prevented actions, such as touching, ending the call accidentally, drooling on the devices etc. All of those things would not happen if they were there supervising the child during the conversation.
Again, spoken like a non-parent. I have yet to see a child that wants to be held on a lap. Children naturally move about and interact. Supervising (parenting) involves watching the child, not preventing them from interacting. You actually *want* your child to move and interact, just like a real person. But, you want to steer them away from interacting with the parts that'll spoil the interaction.
In practice it's a challenge to prevent actions without treating the child like an object. You can either try telling them 40 times "don't touch that, look at grandma", or you can move "that' out of the way so the only interesting interaction for the child is the appropriate one. I still agree the OP has a good question, though the solutions are probably simple trial-and-error hardware approaches.
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap
Something tells me you've never actually tried this with a live toddler. That, or you were using a different model of toddler to the ones I've encountered...
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Kill the kid. Get a goldfish instead. Problem solved.
If you are anti apple, ...
Then he needs to get a grip. The same to the anti Microsoft people and everyone else who's "anti" whatever. It's just so ... adolescent.
Yeah, people with any sort of idealism should just give it up and go with the flow. Idealism is for adolescents. You have a philosophical problem with Apple? Just get a grip, Apple is not going to go away. You're against religion in schools? Just get a grip, religion in schools is here and is not going away. You think there's not enough religion in schools? Just get a grip, there's never going to be religion in schools and that's not going to change. If you're not satisfied with the status-quo, well, just get a grip because it's never going to change.
Imagine how much better things would be if no one had adolescent idealism and just accepted things as they are even if it goes against their personal beliefs, especially if their idealism is different than my own.
Point taken, but I think the submitter just wants to enable ~40 minutes of Skype no more than once a day, not turn the kid into a crib potato watching reality TV for hours on end.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
These studies largely ignore confounding factors, and are useless as a result. A kid who spends large amounts of time watching tv doesn't do homework. The tv watching isn't the cause. A student who spends lots of time playing basketball and does no studying has the same result. We could also conclude that playing basketball affects mental ability as well. A better study: compare students who study the same amount of time, but watch different amounts of tv.
You know, not all grandparents are within driving distance of new parents. My parents live on the opposite coast of me, a couple thousand miles away. My friends have parents who are a few hundred miles away. It's not really an option all the time to have them come over and interact directly...
My grandparents also lived far away as a child, and there was no Skype or internet to chat over back then. I talked to them occasionally on the phone, and sometimes wrote them letters or postcards. And miraculously, all that were involved turned out just fine. You don't need to see your grandparent's faces every day as a child. You don't need to see your parents faces every day as an adult. My father currently lives several thousand miles away, and that is ok. We are both just fine living our lives independently from each other, and the fact I don't talk to him every day doesn't weaken our relationship.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Exposure to TV/Computers is dangerous for kids because synapses develop incorrectly: Because of the incorrect audio/video synchronisation and the lack of feedback
But they'll have the feedback here, grandma and grandpa. This isn't a TV or computer, it's a picture phone. Completely different than what was studied.
Free Martian Whores!
Yeah, when my parents were raising me, there was no internet
When my grandparents were raising them, there were no baby monitors
When my great-grandparents were raising them, there was no electricity
It's called progress. No, it's not necessary. Yes, it's nice to have. No, the fact that it's not necessary doesn't mean the OP shouldn't try to have it.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Oh, fuck off. Maybe it's NICE for grandparents to be able to talk to their kids, even though they live thousands of miles away. I've started skypeing with my mother-in-law (who lives on the other side of the Atlantic), and it's great that she can coo over her new grandchild. It wouldn't be emotionally scarring if she didn't, but it's great that she can.