Meet Elora: Monitoring baby wellness with AI
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Welcome to today's episode of Lexicon. I'm Christopher McFadden, contributing writer for Interesting Engineering. In this episode of Lexicon, we explore how AI is transforming parenting with Shaoli Gur-Arya, co-founder and CEO of LittleOne.care.

Discover how their groundbreaking baby wellness monitor, Elora, goes beyond traditional devices, providing parents with real-time, personalized insights into their baby's well-being. But before our new episode, check out our educational platform, the IE Academy. From IE to beta, we'll provide top-quality courses with live and interactive workshops with professional instructors, and you're invited to join the community. Now let's continue with today's episode. Shaoli, thanks for joining us. How are you today? I'm good.

Great. How are you, Chris? Very well, thank you. Thanks for joining us. For our audience's benefit, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, please? Yes, definitely. And thank you, Chris, for hosting me on this remarkable podcast. Yeah, my pleasure. So the Elora Baby Wellness Monitor is truly a game changer in the world of baby technology.

Unlike other baby monitors that focus mainly on night time, Allora goes several steps further by helping parents improve their baby's well-being at every hour of the day. Since it accompanies the baby everywhere, essentially Allora is not about monitoring, it's about understanding. So here is how it works.

Elora uses a combination of sensors to collect data on a variety of factors, like the baby's activity, crying, sleep cycles, care quality, and also the developmental environment of the baby. It uses this data to create a comprehensive picture of the baby's well-being on the parent's app.

In few glances, just few and very quickly, parents can know their standard of care is met and that their baby is getting the nurturing environment they need. And parents can also share it, all this unique insight about their baby with relatives and baby experts. So,

To begin, one of the unique aspects of Elora is that it's 24/7 monitor and works everywhere. Parents who choose Elora understand that their baby's well-being is much more than just nighttime monitoring.

A well-fed baby is more active. An active baby sleeps better. And all together allow healthy development. So Elora supports this by providing insight around the clock, both about activity and sleep and feeding and nurturing environment of the baby, no matter where the baby is.

And another thing that sets Elora apart is its AI-driven analysis. The AI isn't just passively collecting data. It's actively learning and adapting. For instance, if Elora notices a shift in your baby's sleep pattern, it will clearly appear on the parent's app.

where they can advise with baby experts about potential issues or adjustment suggestions in the baby's sleep environment. This approach, proactive approach, is where AI really shines. It can predict and advise rather than just react.

We can go on about other crucial features like air quality monitoring. That's very unique on the Elora Baby Wellness Monitor. And it's incredibly important because the air your baby breathes can significantly impact their health. Elora can alert you to changes in air quality and suggest ways to improve it.

So also the user interface, for example, quite different from traditional baby wellness monitor or baby monitors. We've designed the Elora to be incredibly user-friendly so parents can easily open the app and understand the insights it provides. Our goal is to make the technology as supportive and intuitive as possible.

and help parents to not just monitor, but actively improve their baby's wellness. With Elora, parents gain peace of mind knowing they're equipped with the tools to ensure their baby's overall well-being. It's not just about health.

catching issues it's about fostering a healthier happier environment for your babies and their growth okay so does it does it need internet connection to work then presumably uh laura i thought you were asking about the conversation not about the device okay the internet connection yeah you see the device yeah yeah

Yes. Okay. So let's go back. Is it like visual only? No wearables? So the device is... There's no wearables or anything on the baby? Oh, just the opposite. Since it works everywhere and 24-7, it's a wearable device that attaches to the baby's shirt and lets you know...

everything about the baby as if you were with the baby, next to the baby all time. And with just, you know, one or twice in the baby's day, you attach it to the baby's shirt. And then by the end of the day, you just put it back in the docking station to charge the device while the baby is taking a shower.

And then you get all the information about the full day and not just the nighttime. Hmm.

Okay, great. So how does AI contribute to understanding a baby's needs? What inspired the development of this technology? All right. So let's dive into how AI is playing the crucial role in the development of our technology. The inspiration behind developing Elora began from the desire to give parents the deepest insight

insights into their baby's well-being, pretty much like smartwatches did to our well-being, to the adult's well-being. As parents, we always want to ensure that our little ones are healthy, happy, and thriving. However, there are so many subtle cues that babies give which can be easily missed or misunderstood. This is where AI comes as a

a game changer. And I'll explain. Artificial intelligence allows Elora to analyze vast amounts of data in real time.

So drawing from a multitude of sensors that monitors a baby's breathing pattern, sleep cycles, and environmental factors, and processing this data, the AI can identify patterns and correlation that might not be immediately apparent to the human eye. Just as an example, if a baby is less active, the AI can identify

this just subtly less active, the AI can cross-reference this with environmental data to see if fluctuations in the room temperature or air quality might be a contributing factor. One of the most remarkable aspects of the AI is this context

is its ability to learn and adapt over time. So as the AI accumulates more data about a specific baby, it becomes better at recognizing the baby's unique patterns and needs. This means the advice and insight it provides become increasingly personalized and precise.

For instance, it might learn that a particular baby tends to sleep better after eating a specific food and will provide recommendation accordingly.

So the development of this technology was inspired by the potential to alleviate some of the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with parenting. We wanted to create a tool that not only monitors but actually helps parents understand their baby's needs in a more intuitive and informed way.

By leveraging our AI, we're able to turn raw data, which can be scary when it's just raw, into actionable insights that parents can use to make informed decisions about their baby's care.

It's a bit like a digital parent then, like an extra digital parent, if you like. You know, one of our experts told us it's a bit like an extension of the parent because it can only do what you can do and, you know, much less because you're the parent. But when you're at home,

at work or when you're with your baby but your memory is not infinite. So it helps you. It's kind of extension that helps you to get the insights that you need about the baby. You know, it used to be like a calculator but now with AI...

that's like AI for babies. Like, you know, this is the CGPT and Gemini. It just do it for your baby, the well-being that you get for yourself, for adults. Now you can have it for the one that you care about most. Yeah. So for a first-time parent, yeah, it's like an AI add-on to your instinct. Yeah.

Yes. Yes and no. If you'd like, back in those days, we used to live in a village. You, of course, are familiar with this analogy. And we used to live in a village where

Our relatives and the whole tribe actually helped us to raise a child. You need a whole village to raise a child. And in today's world, AI plays the role of the village in helping to raise a child. Just as a village wisdom comes from collective experience with hundreds of babies,

Our AI has the capabilities to analyze and remember countless events. So this vast knowledge allows Elora to provide parents with the wise advice when they want it. So it sees what works best across various situations and offers tailored guidance that can significantly improve

benefit from the babies and the parent. Okay. So presumably it can pick up on potential health problems, I guess, with the baby as well, I guess. Yes. Starting with

The ability to know and remember that you took a medicine or a vitamin, a baby doesn't take it on its own. And you need some synchronization between all the caregivers. So,

for the parents' request, actually, we created the capability, a speech-to-text capability. So if you just touch the Elora device...

you can say whatever you want and it will appear on the parents app or if you share it with the caregiver, it just appears there. So if you gave vitamin, it doesn't matter if you gave a vitamin or the caregiver, the nanny, the babysitter, the father, the mother, it's just there and it

kind of synchronization between everyone. So that's just the simple view. But when you take it

into a more advanced and to an AI analysis, then the correlation and connection between taking a medicine and how active you are about the baby's sleep or even about the baby's activity, different activities, it can all be analyzed by AI and presented to the parents.

Fantastic. Is there any reason you chose the name Elora? I have interest. Definitely. Our very first baby who used our monitor, it wasn't yet sold. It was just the alpha stage. Her name was Elora.

And we like the name. And it's also, our logo is an elephant. And that has a very deep reason. Elephants are a very social animal. They live in a pack, which is a family. And they are led by the wise and the smart elephant mother or elephant grandmother.

And they are very sensitive, even though they are big, they are very sensitive and they hear very well and they sense every motion and they translate it to the...

use of the pack. That's the most important for the pack is the newborns. So that's why we chose an elephant for our logo. And Elora combines perfectly with an elephant. So that's Elora the elephant. That's our name and logo. Super. And they never forget, right? Elephants. Yes, very true. So with Elora,

especially the artificial intelligence handling sensitive family data, as you've mentioned. How does your company ensure user privacy and data security? So, yes, ensuring user privacy and data security is the top priority at LittleOne.Care.

Especially given the nature of the data you mentioned. We understand that parents entrust us with their most precious asset, which is their baby. And we take this responsibility very seriously. So first and foremost, all data collected by Elora is encrypted, both in transit and at rest. Meaning if it's on the device, it's still encrypted.

This means that any data being transmitted also between the device and our servers is also encrypted. So it's protected by state-of-the-art encryption technology at all times. This, of course, helps to prevent unauthorized access and ensure that the data remains secure.

And we also implemented strict access control inside the organization. So actually, the vast majority of the data is only accessed by the AI system. So no human sees it.

But when we do need to do it, so only authorized personnel with a legitimate need can access to this minority of the data. And even then, the access is granted on only what this personnel needs to know.

So we regularly review the update and update our access control policies to ensure they meet the highest standard of security. So we're fully compliant with relevant data production, regulation, GDPR and so on. This means

It means we have robust processes in place to manage and protect user data, including obtaining explicit consent from parents before collecting any information and allowing parents to review their data and also to delete it. So all in GDPR. Exactly, yeah.

So the parents are obviously the administrator of the account. They authorize people to

Like users, like a doctor, whoever else. As a parent, when you get the Aloha Baby Wellness Monitor, then the first thing you do is to approve who you want to see the data. Usually it's your spouse, but it can be only you on your own. And if you want to share it, then you choose who to share it and you can

always revert it and you can always delete all the data that is relevant to your baby. By the end of the day, your data. Cool. Excellent. So in what ways do you think Allura can ease the challenges of parenting and improve early childhood wellness? You've touched it a bit, but... Yes. And a bit more. Maybe let's say it in one word. It gives them time.

The major desire of parents is for their baby to be well, while the major time of parenting goes on guesswork. So our most encouraging feedback from parents that use the Elora is that it saves them time because...

we know they, that's the kind of feedback that we like most because we know this time they saved, they can now spend it with their baby. So the most important thing that parents want is just to be there with the baby and less worry, less guess, just be there. So especially in early stages, it,

can be incredibly challenging and overwhelming. And there are so many factors to consider when it comes to a baby's well-being and safety. And it can be tough for parents to keep track of everything on their own. This is where Laura...

kind of shine, offering substantial support to ease these challenges and improve early childhood wellness. Just for example, Elora reflects on the parents' app in which locations and caregivers the baby was happier. It just recognized it by laughter and crying. And

not just happier, also more active and, you know, sleeping better and so on. It can easily be a pivotal information when choosing a babysitter or a daycare. So it can just shorten the time when you search for a caregiver and

with our experience we met a lot of parents that it takes them a while and of course we understand why

Additionally, Elora provides recommendations, personalized recommendations, based on the baby's unique data. So this could include advice on optimal feeding times, ideal sleep environments, or even activities to promote healthy development. This tailored insight can help parents create a more structured and supportive routine

which is essential for the baby's growth and well-being. Elora also plays a role in reducing parental anxiety. We hear a lot about the parental anxiety, especially when it comes to monitor. They don't want just to get

more information more data they want to know what to do with it because it's already overwhelming so you want something to ease it and the constant worry about whether their baby is healthy and safe can be very stressful for parents so with the Laura they can have peace of mind knowing that

They are equipped with a tool that provides accurate and timely information about their baby status, when they need it, and what they need to know. So this confidence can significantly reduce stress and allow parents to focus more on enjoying time with their baby. Absolutely. That sounds pretty sophisticated. So I wonder... It's a...

It's one of the major hurdles you had to overcome when developing the AI. Sure. And just to complete the capabilities of Elora and the benefit and the value it gives, it acts like a digital advisor that leverages collective wisdom.

The AI ability to learn from a wide range of data, it allows it to offer advice that might not be immediately obvious, but in general perspective, it is. It's like having the village that we're talking about and experienced caregivers offering their insights,

all day but in more scientific and data driven manner so when it doesn't know the answer or

There are several possibilities, like in a scientific method. Sometimes the answer is unknown. A parent can contact a baby expert on the app itself. So it's not just the AI. The data is not passed only to the AI. But if the parents want...

They can share it with experts on the app and speak to this experienced professional, get advices, answers, and essentially the comfort to have an answer or some sort of answer to their question. This can be incredibly reassuring for parents, especially for those who might not

I have a large support network. So, sorry, what was it? Can you remind me your question? Absolutely. Before we come to that, though, I just had a thought. So with them, oh, I forget the name, where babies sort of die randomly in their sleep, a cot death or something. SIDS. This could help stop that, I guess. Yeah.

Okay, so SADS is very complicated and it's an acronym for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. So the sudden at the beginning means that we don't know why it happens. And when I say we, I mean humanity. The doctors don't know why it happens. So

We definitely cannot solve anything that doctors cannot know. So that's relevant, of course, for all the devices in the market. What we do is help with things that we can know. So even...

that sort of emergency, of course, the SIDS, but there are other emergencies that are well-known in the world. For example, if the baby falls down, God forbid, then

then you would want an immediate alert on it. Of course, if the baby cries, that's the good situation, then you can hear it. But sometimes you just want to be on the safe side and have an alert on it. And when you have a wearable device, it just feels it immediately and alerts you

on the spot or for example that does happen sometimes that people leave the baby, forget the baby in the car so it also can alert you on the spot immediately. So that's the emergencies that we do deal with. That's a powerful tool then.

So, like I was saying, what are some of the major hurdles you faced whilst developing the AI behind Elora? Of course. If you're able to tell us. Definitely. Developing an advanced AI like Elora certainly came with its share of challenges. One of the major hurdles we faced was ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data being collected. So,

since we're dealing with sensitive aspects of the baby, health and environment, it's crucial that the sensors themselves and the collection mechanism were highly precise and we don't miss anything and we do it in the right frequency and accuracy and we spent a considerable amount of time testing and calibrating our sensors and

Of course, since it's a wearable device, it's very, very small. You know, babies are very small and we cannot have just a smartphone or smartwatch as a wearable for a baby. We made it very safe for babies and comfortable and small so it's easy for them to live their own life.

And that also means that our battery is quite small. And that's the other side of making the sensors very accurate. So this kind of a balance between these two.

And another significant challenge, let's say, was the integration of multiple data streams into cohesive and actionable system. So it's not just motion and it's not just sound. It's sound, motion, and quality and different aspects in the baby's life and

And this motion can affect the breathing patterns, which is related to air quality, which can...

you know, everything affects everything. So integrating all this information in a meaningful way requires a sophisticated algorithm and neural networks and robust data processing framework. We had to ensure that the AI could not only handle this data, but also analyze it fast enough to provide timely and relevant insights.

Another one of our complexities was working in the audio and motion domains. So while many AI systems focus on vision and neural language processing, LoRa requires us to...

dive deeply into understanding audio signals and physical movements, motions. This posed unique challenges as we needed to develop our own algorithms and make them accurate enough to interpret and respond to these different types of data. And the nuances of babies' movement and sounds are subtle and

different. So it requires a level of precision and adaptability in our AI that was not readily available in off-the-shelf solution or any kind of solution. So that brings me to the field of infant care is

surprisingly little label data available. So for instance, the only vast public data set regarding babies is height and weight records. And most of this data was collected back in the 70s. It means that it's very hard because babies are different, very different. And

The only data that was collected was this heightened weight. And what it means about us, that we had to create our own data set from scratch. As a leading company in the babies field, we...

had a unique opportunity to gather and analyze new data, enabling us to discover fresh insights that were never discovered before that we can provide to parents. That was both a challenge and a privilege for us as it allows us to pioneer new understanding and set a standard for future research and development. Fantastic, absolutely.

Yeah, so especially with, I know I mentioned it before, so to go back to it, but infant death syndrome. Perhaps, unfortunately, you may find...

a reason behind it, Ax, from your monitors? Maybe. Hopefully not. That would be a dream to find the reason and be able to solve it, and a nightmare to find the reason and not be able to solve it. Exactly, yeah. I don't want it to happen, but it would be incredibly a massive breakthrough. But hopefully not. Anyway...

So where do you see the integration of AI and Internet of Things in childcare heading into the next decade? Oh, the integration. Yeah, it's a very interesting, it's a lot of components in this question. AI and IoT in childcare is interesting.

We'll probably revolutionize the way we approach early childhood wellness in the coming decade. The advancement we're seeing now, currently, are just the tip of the iceberg and the potential for future development is incredibly exciting. One of the key trends I anticipate in the increased personalization of childcare is

making it even more personalized. As AI and IoT devices become more sophisticated, they will be able to provide even more tailored insights and recommendations for each individual child, like they do to us, the adults. This means that whether then relying on generalized advice that you can find in Google or...

even in CHED-GPT, which is becoming more personalized as you provide the data. Now parents will have access to highly specific information that takes into account also the child's unique patterns, preferences, and developmental stage, you name it. So we can also...

expect to see greater emphasis on holistic wellness. Future AI-driven system will likely integrate data from various aspects of the child life, not just health metric, but also emotional and cognitive development. This could involve

analyzing data from smart toys or educational apps and even social interaction to provide a comprehensive picture of the child's overall well-being and

This, of course, has to come only when the mindset of us as a society is ready for it. So, of course, there are always early birds that want to monitor everything. But I think as time will progress, we will see it.

more and more as we saw smartphone and then smartwatch for personal well-being it will become it will you know move further on maybe another exciting development

in the potential of AI and IoT is early detection and intervention for health issues. We sort of mentioned it, but by continuously monitoring a wide range of health indicators, this system can identify potential problems before they become serious and

prompt parents or caregivers to take actions. And this is especially important with babies because the earlier the intervention, the greater the impact and babies cannot

talk to us you know some people do not talk but most of them do but babies all of them most of them cannot talk when there is an issue and and AI can definitely help detecting it when it has an IoT device that senses it fantastic and

The lore at the moment is a clip-on device, isn't it? Do you have any plans to maybe, I don't know, produce a range of baby suits?

with the lower built-ins okay so our thought behind the attachment method for our monitor was to interfere in the last way possible to the regular life and

While other monitors might have suits or cameras and so on, it's great for their purposes, but it's very limiting because it's only nighttime. It's not even sleep time because baby sleeps everywhere. As a parent, you probably know. But

But it's focused on nighttime. And since it's nighttime, then you have your own suit or your own pajama and you just wear it. But our approach is the well-being of the baby, which involves activity, feeding,

healthy environment and so on. So if you want to be holistic and see all those aspects and elements, you have to go with the baby whenever it is. Fair enough. I just wonder. So given the name of the device, presumably you've had good feedback from parents.

So generally speaking, are parents happy with the device? Yeah, generally speaking, yes. They are happy with the device. There are some, you know, we always learn no matter what the feedback is. We're happy that most of the feedback is good, but we learn also from maybe weird situations. Maybe I'll tell you about...

One of the last positive side of the feedback was we had a parent telling us that they had moved to a different daycare thanks to Elora. That sounds like thanks to Elora, but you know, it's a...

Not what we expected when using Elora. On the other hand, we received feedback from parents who find Elora's data valuable in complementing caregivers. For instance, a parent was happy to tell us about the grandmother talking to the baby. So,

thanks to the device, the parents were able to thank the grandmother and know that she's talking with the baby much more, much more than everyone else, including the parents themselves. So that's, of course, enhancing the baby's verbal development. And we all know how...

verbal development and tummy time for the physical development is very important. So

This was a very happy feedback that we received, that people told us, "Wow, I actually went to my mother to say her thank you, not just for taking care of the baby, but actually helping with the development of the baby."

Yes. Another sort of feedback we received about the Allure app, parents appreciate the clear visualization and straightforward recommendations. They love it, you know,

straightforward and not have to look for it. They've told us that having access to the data and insights had helped them make more informed decisions about their baby's care, which in turn, of course, improved the baby's overall wellness.

Parents have noted that the air quality monitoring feature has been particularly useful. They like it, they love it, they are aware of it. And especially for those living in urban areas or regions.

with varying air quality, they like it a lot. Knowing that LoA is constantly monitoring the environment and alerting or notifying on changes has been a huge relief for those parents.

The feedback that we get from parents is also significantly influencing our ongoing development. We're constantly working to refine and enhance the features that Allora suggests to parents. For instance, we've added to the parents' request speech-to-text capabilities that we were mentioning. So,

Parents just touch the device, the Elora monitor, and say whatever they want for the next four or five seconds. And this pops up on the app and it synchronizes everyone about this voice tag. But it also helps the AI to get more nuanced insights about the baby and help parents with this as well.

And overall, the feedback from parents is invaluable in shaping the evolution of the Elora Monitor. And it not only validates the impact of the technology, but also it guides us for future continuous improvement to better serve families. Absolutely. Fantastic. Something I forgot to ask, what age range is Elora designed for?

So we designed, definitely, we designed the LoRa for the ages 0 to 24 months, so since birth to 22 years old. And actually, the first thing that we did when we established the company was talking to parents. Before we touched any computer, any algorithm, any electronics, we came to parents and were like,

interviewing them and we asked them what age do you think this monitor should go you know we had an idea about this 24-7 monitoring and that works everywhere and they said until the baby can talk

When the baby starts talking, then, or, you know, kind of can tell what happened in the past or what he wants in the future, maybe he or she won't. Then that's the time to give parents another set of features. But we focus now between zero and 24 months.

Gotcha. That leads on to the last question. So do you envisage Elora's capabilities sort of being expanded to other stages of childhood? Yes. Or different areas of wellness? Yes. And also even more than this. So expanding Elora capabilities is part of our vision at Little One Care. We

When our primary focus has been the early stage of child life, the baby and toddler, we recognize that the principle and technology behind the LoRa can be beneficial at various other stages of childhood and elderly.

One of the most, yeah, I get it, that we had this junction when we started the company. We chose the baby stage, but it can go everywhere. So one of the most exciting possibilities is extending Elora monitoring and advisory feature into toddlerhood and beyond that.

So as children grow, their needs evolve. And so the challenges faced by parents, they can now talk, but it's a blessing, but it also brings new challenges. So by leveraging the same AI and census technology,

Using the same sensor and even improving the AI, Elora could continue to provide valuable insight into areas such as developmental milestones, nutrition, physical activity, and emotional well-being. For example, monitoring a toddler's activity level and providing recommendations for age-appropriate exercise or play activities could help promote healthy physical development.

We also see potential in integrating Elora into the broader ecosystem of family health and wellness. Imagine a system where Elora doesn't just stop at monitoring the baby, but also helps support the entire family's well-being.

This could include features like stress level monitoring for parents, reminders for family health checkups, or even suggestions for family activities that promote bonding and relaxation. By creating a more holistic wellness platform, we can ensure that the whole family benefits from the insights and recommendations provided by the technology. Moreover,

There is potential to expand the lower capabilities to address specific health concerns or conditions. For instance, parents for children with asthma or allergies could benefit from more tailored monitoring and advice related to air quality and environmental factors. Similarly, children with sleep disorders or allergies

issues could receive specialized support and recommendations based on the same technology, the same sensor and improve the AI related to it. So as I mentioned, one

particularly exciting expansion or adoption for the Elora capabilities is supporting elderly care. Just as Elora provides real-time monitoring and personalized insight for baby, the same technology could be used to monitor and support the health and well-being of older adults. For instance, Elora could track

vital signs of their adult movements, patterns and environmental factors to ensure that elderly individuals are safe and healthy. It could provide alerts for potential issues, reminding them to take medications.

and offer suggestions for activities that promote physical and cognitive wellness. This adaptation is really not straightforward, but as we envision it, we see and we were talking about the IoT and AI. So this combination is the starting point to...

gather the data, gather the information, understand what people do and what do good for them, how their activity is doing, what their activity, how their activity impacts them. And by that, we commend to others based on this information. So,

Overall, our vision for Elora is to evolve into a comprehensive wellness platform that supports individuals and families at every stage of life. Starting with baby, which is very significantly and the beginning of life, then keep going for the rest. So by continuously innovating and expanding our capabilities, we

and to provide tools that empower people to lead healthier, happier lives.

This journey is ongoing and we're excited about the many possibilities that Laya had. Cradle to grave, as they say. Yeah, we start with the cradle. Brilliant. That is all my questions. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up? Just thanking you again, Chris, for inviting me and hosting me and littleone.care. So,

On my name and the whole team, thank you very much. Absolutely, our pleasure. And of course, Merry Christmas. Thank you very much. With that then, thank you for your time, Shaoli. That was very, very interesting. Thank you. Thank you very much.

And have fun with the food. That concludes this episode of Lexicon. Thank you all for tuning in and being our guest today. As always, follow our social media channels for the latest science and technology news. Also, don't forget to explore iAcademy for new courses. Goodbye for now. Bye.