Lumi

A curious explorer kitten who helps children ask, imagine, and discover.

Comment

Where Lumi came from

Lumi started with a conversation between my eight-year-old daughter, Beatriz, and me.

When we found this challenge, I asked her a simple question: “If you could create an app for children, what would it be like?” She began describing a curious little kitten who could help children understand the things they see every day.

She wanted children to be able to talk to Lumi, take a picture of something they did not recognize, and get a friendly explanation. Then she added the idea that became the heart of the project: before giving the answer, Lumi should ask, “What do you think it is?”

I loved that. It turns a quick answer into a small moment of thinking, imagining, and discovering.

That is how Lumi began.

What Lumi does

Lumi is a learning companion for children from 6 to 14 years old.

A child can ask a question with their voice or take a photo of a plant, animal, object, food, or anything else that makes them curious. Lumi gives a short explanation that matches the child's age and can speak English, Brazilian Portuguese, or Spanish.

We wanted it to feel simple and warm: an explorer kitten, a camera, a microphone, and the feeling that learning can begin with one small question.

We also wanted Lumi to be a safe place for children. It avoids inappropriate topics, does not try to identify people in photos, and does not keep photos or recordings after it has answered.

How we made it

I built the first version of Lumi with Codex by my side. It helped me turn Beatriz's ideas into a real app: the screens, the camera and microphone flows, language choices, account verification, safety rules, and the small details that make the experience feel friendly.

GPT-5.6 is an important part of Lumi. It helps Lumi understand images and create explanations that fit different ages. Voice tools let Lumi listen to a child's question and answer with one warm, consistent voice.

The best part of building this was watching an idea that began at home, between a father and his daughter, become something that other children can actually try.

What was difficult

The hard part was not adding every idea at once. Beatriz had many wonderful ideas: challenges, missions, family profiles, games, and new ways to learn.

For this first version, we chose to protect the most important part of Lumi: a child notices something interesting, asks a question, and gets help discovering the answer.

Safety was another big responsibility. When you build for children, every answer has to be careful, clear, and appropriate. We added rules around both photos and voice questions so Lumi does not give explanations that could put a child's physical health, emotional wellbeing, privacy, or safety at risk. The app checks incoming images and questions, checks the response before it is shown, and gives a gentle refusal when a request involves dangerous, violent, sexual, illegal, self-harm, medical-emergency, or otherwise inappropriate content.

Lumi also avoids identifying people in photos or making guesses about private or sensitive characteristics. Photos and recordings are used only long enough to answer the child's question and are not kept afterward. These choices were not the most visible part of the project, but they were some of the most important.

What we are proud of

I am proud that Lumi was not designed only by adults for children. It started with a child explaining what she would enjoy using.

I am also proud that children can already use Lumi to explore the world around them in practical ways:

  • Take a photo of a plant, flower, leaf, fruit, or other vegetation and learn its likely name, how to recognize it, where it grows, and interesting details about it.
  • Take a photo of an animal, insect, or bird and learn its likely species or group, habitat, characteristics, and why it is important in nature.
  • Take a photo of a school subject, exercise, page, diagram, or object and hear a simpler explanation that matches the child's age.
  • Send voice questions about plants, nature, animals, insects, birds, objects, food, school subjects, weather, space, the human body, simple science, everyday technology, art, history, and many other safe everyday curiosities.

I am proud that I could show my daughter that her ideas matter. She brought the curiosity, the personality of Lumi, and the way Lumi should talk. I helped build the path from her imagination to a working project.

What comes next

We want to keep listening to children and families and make Lumi more useful and more fun. In the future, we would love to add a discovery history, small weekly missions, spaces for parents and teachers, and more ways to learn through play.

The idea will stay the same:

Do not just give children the answer. Help them discover it.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates