Kids' gimbal-mounted cereal bowl

Loopla's "Gyro-bowl" is a kids' eating-bowl mounted on a gimbals so that it can swing freely as your kid picks it up and moves it around. It looks like it would be a lot of fun -- and easier for kids to carry without spilling.

Loopla (via Make)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Scott

Yes. much better than teaching kids manners.
Rob Cruickshank

Gimbals without gyroscope is like cereal without frosting.
sylvar

This might be useful for adults with disabilities, too, who could carry soup from kitchen to living room with one hand while balancing with the other.

There’s no indication on their site of how big it is or how much it holds — any measurements from those who have one?
diff520

http://www.gyrobowl.com is actually the Loopa’s web site that includes a demo video of the gyro bowl in action.

The bowl is coo, but I want to know where I could also purchase one of those cute kids in the video!
hhype

Definitely go see the video at http://www.gyrobowl.com that diff520 pointed out (thanks!). It makes me want one of these things so that I don’t spill my own snacks. I might get one ostensibly for my one year old as a front for my own covetousness.

The video is great in that the danger of spilling items in the bowl is escalated in two dimensions. The food in the bowl goes from dry cereal or raisins to wet cereal to pudding (!). All the while the kids go from just sitting with the bowl, to carrying it around, to running, to jumping up and down, and then skateboarding with it. Exciting!
diff520

http://www.gyrobowl.com is the link to another site where you can see the bowl in action. The bowl is pretty cool – but I’m more entertained watching those ridiculously adorable children! How cute.
cinemajay

That’s a nifty invention, but it violates rule #1: sit at the table and finish your meal.
cymk

I can here the kids now, “mom, my hand is stuck in the gyro bowl again.”
Anonymous

You people over-analyze things. Just because you purchase one of these bowls for your child to carry cereal or snacks in, doesn’t mean that they won’t grow up without manners or cooridination. It’s just a convenient bowl for a toddler to carry around, while lessening the risk of dropped food that they will inevitably pick up and put in their mouth. If you have young children, then you realize that watching them 24/7 is hardly an option, no matter how hard you try. Lighten up people.
Anonymous

Great idea!
UNFORTUNATELY, it’s IMPOSSIBLE TO ORDER them!
After reading about the Gyro Bowls on Boing Boing, I placed 2 (two) orders online a week-and-a-half ago and printed out the online order receipts.
However, I never received the promised email order confirmations, nor has the company charged my credit card.
I phoned their 800 number 3 times over the past week to report my problem, and have been repeatedly assured by the customer service reps that someone would get right back to me. They have not responded.
I then emailed the company as well, but they have ignored my email messages.
Very strange way to do business – and very disappointing for such a promising product.
VMOS

this is very clever but surely learning to carry things properly is an important skill that kids should be encouraged to learn?
Bryson

Hmm. Site is suspiciously video-free. The “see it in action” is just a slideshow.
Anonymous

As a parent of a disabled child, this looks great!! My daughter loves to help with her dishes, but lacks the physical coordination not to make a mess… Plus, she loves to walk around with a small bowl of snacks.
JohnCJ

If you think that cereal bowl is in any way “spill proof”, I have a 1.5 year old niece who will prove you wrong.
sam1148

Never underestimate a kids ability to test limits.

If I had one of those, it would be great fun..slinging it around my head…stopping reversing, just to see where it would toss everything out.

Look at that kids pic. Just look at it!
With a defiant expression on his face that says “Ha! this bowl will crumble under my mess making abilities!”
He wants to sling it about
Pantograph

Now why would a kid be running around with his bowl?

But I guess if you take the kid aboard your pirate vessel or high altitude balloon it’s hard to keep your goggles dry. Let him find his sea legs before you start on fine motor control. Yarr!

(I plan on raising my hypothetical kids to be high class jewel thieves, so from day one they will have to walk a tightrope over a snake pit carrying their Meissen plate between their teeth to get food.)
tuckels

I’ve never been in a position where i thought “it would be so much better if i could run around with cereal bowl in hand.”
- The Lizardman
  
  There’s hardly a moment when I wouldn’t think things would be better if I could easily be running about with a bowl of cereal in my hand.
sf

For kids huh? Back in the day I can remember many a midnight munchie driven kitchen raid where I had to slowly and carefully bumble my return trip to bedroom in darkness with a bowl full to brim with cereal and milk. That bowl is for stoners.
- indiecognition
  
  Stoners should know their way around a bowl. This gadget is for suckers.
Felton

Do they make a yo-yo version?
JoshP

i sense a disturbance, a presence I have not felt since… oh wait, my rice chex and soy milk are completely in alignment.
As admittedly cool as this is, and i can see my toddler niece bucketing around her baby kibble in one, I hope we don’t look back on this product in 30 years with an OMG face palm.
UncaScrooge

Concerned parents take note: The purpose of this bowl appears to be to entertain children, not to prevent spills. It might just uselessly fascinate them with the function of a gimbal, rather than impart a stern moral lesson.

Certainly there should be no place in a child’s life for objects of mere amusement. The grand tedium of endless adult toil beckons and the young whippersnappers must be prepared to exercise wills of purest iron, lest they recline into the slothen table manners of the guttersnipe.
- MrScience
  
  It might just uselessly fascinate them with the function of a gimbal…
  Good gads, man, I certainly hope your forgot a sarcasm tag. I’ve never thought to put the words uselessly and fascinate so close together, and I now cringe that the meme has even touched my conciousness!
neurolux

I love anything with gimbals. I’ve got a candle holder made for a ship with gimbals that keep the lit candles upright.
Anonymous

Whilst they might not spill the BOWL, the design of this gadget ensures plenty of dropped spoonsful between the bowl and the kid.

And it really isn’t a bad thing to sit at an actual table and eat an actual meal with real silverware. Table manners still count.
Jardine

When I was a kid, we sat down at a table (well, a flat surface made of cardboard) and ate our gruel like civilized beings. Then we put in our 23-hour shift at the coal mine. Damn kids these days.
bsdnazz

It’s a bowl for stoners.

Bowls nearly full of cereal and milk are useful for teaching kids hand eye co-ordination and the table waiting skills so many will need in later life!
Caroline

That thing looks awesome. I want one.

Furthermore, it’s not about not teaching your kid manners. It’s about coping when they’re too young to understand about not turning over the bowl.

(P.S. It’s LÃ¶opa, not Loopla.)
brinylon

For some unfathomable reason people learn to carry their bowls of slop without spilling when they are themselves the ones that have to clean up the mess. Like when they move out to their own place. Gimbals for everyone!
- Quothz
  
  “For some unfathomable reason people learn to carry their bowls of slop without spilling when they are themselves the ones that have to clean up the mess.”
  
  Not me; I’m a bit of a neat freak but a total klutz. I even have t’clean up after a slob of a roommate for my own peace of mind. I have t’buy new dishes every six months or so, but my floor’s clean enough to eat off if I did run out.
  
  I was clumsy as a kid, too, and never got past it. Too many adults assumed I was being careless or deliberately vexing rather than just naturally a bit ham-handed and they did their best t’make my childhood miserable.
  
  I hope you don’t have kids, or authority over ‘em, for their sake, if you’re in the habit of assuming the worst about ‘em like that.
arikol

I think this bowl is a fun novelty, but I give my kids things they can hardly handle, so they can practice. My 2 and a half year old uses adult plates, bowls and glasses and does it with aplomb.
The only way they learn is by getting to do the things in the right way. And getting to make mistakes, drop things, see things break, fall on their heads, etc. Reasonable safety precautions are fine (helmet while biking) but making everything child safe will result in the kids not getting the confidence and satisfaction of having done like mum and dad.
- PaulR
  
  I came here to say this, too.
  
  Yeah, god forbid that they should actually learn how to balance items. Or eat at a table, eh?
t3knomanser

Who cares about kids or practicality. That looks like fun for me!
Anonymous

OMG help! My bowl is locked!
Angstrom

`Twas brillig, and the cereal bowls,
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
- chgoliz
  
  +1 internets to Angstrom!
Saskplanner

Hmm. a child that age should be able to manage sitting at a table and deal with regular dinnerware and cutlery.
bzishi

Gimbal lock is required to eat the cereal. This seems to be a very poor lesson to be teaching our children who may be future spaceship captains.
scrubb

The PBS show Everyday Edisons featured the mom and pop inventors and how the product was developed: http://www.everydayedisons.com/bradMelinda.html
Anonymous

I got one of these a few months ago and used it once. I would not recommend it – it is more spill-prone than a regular bowl.
bkad

For something like that to deal with swinging and deliberate mishandling, you need a high mass-to-friction ratio (stability) and a large moment on the bowl (to realign it to gravity once it does tip). I don’t that being accomplished with plastic. (weighted steel bowl with ball bearings, maybe?)

For casual clumsiness and inattention it might work, though.
- EH
  
  Obviously this needs a steampunk version with a thick, brass bowl and wooden (I bet there’s a technical term for the) rings. Either that, or a ceramic bowl with carbon-fiber rings.
- Felton
  
  I’ll get Dean Kamen on it immediately.