MUSE
A homework ritual,
not another screen.
Muse is a physical, screenless robot tutor built for kids with ADHD. It sits at your child's real desk, looks at the real worksheet already in front of them, and teaches out loud — the way a good human tutor would. No app to open, no login for your kid, no second screen pulling focus away from the page.
SEES
Reads the real page
Understands the actual worksheet on the desk — no scanning, no typing it in first.
GUIDES
Teaches out loud
Talks your child through it, adapting in real time — never just handing over the answer.
REMEMBERS
Tracks the whole picture
Focus, mistakes, and mastery, carried from one visit to the next.
Whether you're a parent keeping an eye on things or a teenager running your own homework, Muse is built to work with one learner, in one place, over time.
WHY IT'S BUILT THIS WAY
Built on how motivation actually works
Muse isn't built around points, streaks, or pressure to perform. It follows self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan) — a well-established body of psychological research on what actually sustains motivation: a sense of ownership over what you're doing, real feedback on how you're actually doing, and the feeling that someone is in your corner. Every design choice below traces back to one of these three needs.
AUTONOMY
Your kid holds the wheel. Muse nudges toward an answer — it never marches them to one.
COMPETENCE
Real feedback, not empty praise. Muse only says "you’ve got it" once it’s actually checked.
RELATEDNESS
Someone in their corner. A voice with real personality that stays consistent, session after session.
01 · THE PAGE
It works on the real page
No scanning, no re-typing the assignment. Muse works with the worksheet already sitting on the desk.
Finds it and locks on
The moment your child starts talking about their homework, Muse's camera finds the worksheet and its arm orients toward it — no pointing, no setup ritual. This is deployed and verified on real robot hardware, not just in simulation.
Keeps up as it moves
Papers slide, flip, and get shoved aside mid-problem. Muse's camera and arm track right along in real time, keeping its guidance aimed at the actual page — proven on the same real, physical hardware, desk after desk.
Reads the real worksheet
Hold up a worksheet, a workbook page, whatever your child brought home — Muse understands the assignment on sight. Deployed and working today, on real hardware, not a mockup.
Draws right onto the page
Muse projects its guidance — a circle, an arrow, a hint — directly onto your child's actual paper, not a separate screen. It's one of the most ambitious pieces of the whole system, built and proven start-to-finish against a full simulated rig; as it moves onto real desks, early sessions run with someone keeping an eye on it.
Confirms progress before it praises it
Muse doesn't say "great job" on faith. Before it marks anything solved, it checks the page for the actual work — that rule is built into how the system runs, not just something the AI is asked to remember to do.
02 · THE TEACHING
It teaches instead of telling
One rule sits underneath everything Muse says: never just hand over the answer.
Actually checks the work
Before Muse calls something right or wrong, it looks at what's really on the page — not just what your child says out loud. It's even built to catch a sneaky trap: a confident explanation that quietly assumes the very thing it's supposed to prove.
Won't just give the answer
Ask Muse for the answer and it won't hand it over. It nudges instead — a question, a smaller step, a hint — always pointing your child back toward figuring it out themselves.
Helps kids think it through
When a kid says something wrong out loud, Muse doesn’t announce "wrong" — it treats them as the expert on their own thinking and works the reasoning through with them.
Shows a diagram, once it's earned
Muse doesn't lead with pictures. It works the verbal explanation first, and only brings in a diagram once your child has actually engaged with the idea.
03 · ATTENTION
It notices when focus slips
Built for kids whose attention comes and goes — Muse is built to notice, not nag.
Notices when you're stuck
If your child freezes over the page for a while, Muse picks up on it and steps in quietly with a nudge, not a lecture. We're still tuning exactly how sensitive this is — every kid's version of “stuck” looks a little different.
Notices when you've checked out
Phone in hand, wandered off, gone quiet a beat too long — Muse tells these apart and responds accordingly, instead of treating every pause the same way.
Takes breaks with you
We're building this right now: a Muse that lets your child simply ask for a break instead of waiting on a timer, and that adapts break timing to how they're actually pacing through the work.
04 · PRESENCE
It feels like someone, not something
A tutor your kid actually wants to sit with — not a speaker reading off a script.
Has a real personality
Muse isn't a flat, generic voice. It has an actual character — how it jokes, how brief it is, how it handles frustration, how it recovers when it gets something wrong — and that character stays consistent every time your child talks to it.
Reacts with body language
In active development right now: a Muse that gestures and moves expressively while it's actually teaching a problem, not just before or after a session.
Looks at you, not just the desk
In active development right now: teaching Muse to deliberately turn and look at your child for the human moments — a greeting, a celebration, an offer to take a break — instead of only ever facing the page.
05 · MEMORY
It remembers your kid
Every session adds to one real, evolving picture of how your child learns.
Remembers, in the moment
Muse carries context from earlier in the conversation — and earlier in the visit — into everything it says next. It isn't starting over with every question.
Learns how your kid learns
Skill by skill, session by session, Muse builds a real model of what your child has mastered and what still needs work.
Learns how your kid's school teaches it
Schools don't all teach the same method. Muse recognizes the specific approach your child's school uses — the area model versus long division, say — and explains things in those terms, not a generic one.
Learns from you, too
Anything you tell Muse directly — how your kid learns best, what's going on at school — gets folded into the same picture, clearly kept apart from what Muse noticed on its own.
Knows what your kid has mastered
A running, skill-by-skill readout of what's solid and what's worth extra attention, always current.
Notices when they did it alone
A natural next step for Muse: recognizing genuinely independent work — no hints needed — as its own kind of win worth celebrating.
06 · AUTONOMY
It puts your kid in charge
Learning that follows a goal, not just whatever problem comes next.
Adapts to what your kid actually needs
Muse tracks real goals across visits, not just problem by problem — and steers each session's focus based on where your child actually stands against them.
Steers practice toward your goals
In active development right now: Muse proactively asking for more practice material once it senses your child is ready for it, connecting what it already knows about their goals to what shows up in a session.
07 · FOR PARENTS (AND SELF-DIRECTED KIDS)
You're never guessing
Whether you're checking in as a parent or you're the teenager running your own homework, the picture is always there.
Talk to Muse yourself
Reflect is a private, text-based way to check in with Muse anytime, outside of homework sessions, running on the exact same intelligence as the robot itself. Ask how a session went, add context, or just talk something through.
Your dashboard, always current
One place to see it all: what's happening in a live session, how this week compares to last, a streak, and a running session history.
A written progress report
We're building this right now: an automatic written summary after each session, so you don't have to piece it together yourself.