Designer Tom Evans has developed a range of parenting gadgets that look like collectable toys.
Calling the collection Bleep Bleeps, Evans took normally sterile objects such as a baby monitor, thermometer and fertility tester, and styled them with details resembling faces, bright colours and fun names in a bid to make them more family-friendly.
"There’s a bunch of gadgets and devices out there to help parents, but most of them are dull and uninspiring," Evans told Dezeen. "I want to make parenting easier for myself but I also care what things look like too."
The parenting devices all sync with a smartphone app that provides alerts, tracks data to help identify patterns and offers advice.
"More and more things in life have the potential to be controlled by our smartphones," said Evans. "The whole Internet Of Things scene was exploding and I saw an opportunity in uniting three very disparate worlds: parenting, connected devices and great design."
The first prototyped device was a thermometer called Tony Tempa (after rapper Tinie Tempah). It comes with a bow tie and takes an in-ear reading that is immediately displayed via an LED display on the back, and relayed to the app to track changing temperature during an illness.
The first product to be available though will be Sammy Screamer, a motion device that sends a push notification to the parent's phone if it is moved.
With a Bluetooth range of 30 metres, Sammy is designed to be attached on any item the user wants to monitor - a door, buggy or the lid of a biscuit tin. The device also has an audible alarm with volume and sensitivity controlled via the app, and attaches using a magnet or loop.
Other products in the pipeline include a male fertility tester called Master Bates, an ovulation tester called Olivia P Sticks and a baby monitor called David Camera.
