Pittsburgh start-up Electric Owl Studios are the subject of a profile in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review covering the development and deployment of the Kid’s Interactive Creation Kiosk, or KICK, game system used in hospital waiting rooms across the country.

Today, there are 55 kiosks in 35 different hospital waiting rooms in 23 states across the country. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh alone has purchased 14 of the machines.

Coming out of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, the Electric Owl team are making an impact on the lives of young children by applying the lessons they learned designing video games to improve the hospital visit experience for children.

The project began with a fairly simple problem: How do you make a trip to the hospital less tedious and miserable for children? Children’s asked the ETC for ideas. A few students came up with a touch-screen video-game system, loaded with fun, easy-to-learn games.

Great to see these seeds of innovation and collaboration beginning to grow in Pittsburgh’s youth-serving and technology sectors. Way to go Electric Owl!

Read the story — “Kids in hospitals get a KICK out of interactive game system“