Frequently Asked Questions
Nicola is the only software that tracks kids’ reading time accurately & unlocks apps and games to play afterwards!
- Limit games & apps and encourage self-learning
- Schedule time for reading and playing
- Motivate to read with bonus playtime
Youtube tutorial:
You need to grant Device Admin permission for Nicola app to work correctly.
In this case, your kid won’t be able to uninstall the app.
Turn-off this permission first in case you want to uninstall Nicola app.
- Open Nicola app and turn it OFF
- Go to Device Settings
- Open Privacy (can be hidden under Additional settings)
- Open Device Administrator
- Choose Nicola and turn off the switcher
- Go back to Home, tap and hold Nicola icon. Drag’n’drop it to trash icon to unistall.
There are a number of factors that influence reading detection quality in the Nicola app:
- clear face visibility
- neither face (glasses should not be a problem though) nor camera should be obscured
- person should sit in front of the camera with the average distance ranging from 20 to 100 cm
- if the face is lost, you’ll be notified by Nicola
- stable head pose
- when people read they’re normally calm and not moving much
- lighting conditions
- too dark or bright environments may impact face and reading detection; it’s simple to check: take a photo of yourself using your device and make sure your face and eyes are clearly visible
- content
- the more the content is close to a plain text the better is reading recognition. Thus, reading a book is better recognized than reading media content with lots of embedded pictures
- reading medium
- it will be better recognized when a person is reading from the screen, although recognition will also work if you read a paper book on camera. In the latter case Nicola’s performance may not be at its best due to movements related to book handling and page turning
- The bigger reading text area (e.g. screen or window size) the better for reading detection
- currently, only left to right reading detection is supported
- device load
- heavy load on the device (e.g. other applications loading the CPU) may impact the quality of reading detection
To achieve the bonus time award, a person should read for a continuous time interval and not be distracted frequently. Continuous face visibility loss is considered a distraction.
Nicola app on a mobile device supports both portrait and landscape orientations. However, it’s recommended to use the one that
- is convenient for device handling ( to avoid excessive movements)
- maximizes the text width (e.g. landscape), too short lines (like text columns) make people read from top to bottom leading to poor reading detection quality
Try to find a comfortable pose which will allow you to keep your face visible to the device.
By default, Nicola doesn’t allow a child to delete the app from the device without a parent’s authorization.
A parent can always remove the app using a parental PIN, but the child can’t.
Here are additional tips to prevent Nicola from being tampered.
Windows:- Use a separate non administrative account for a child to limit access to operating system features.
- Always lock Nicola parent mode using a lock icon in the top right corner of Nicola application.
- Secure Android Safe mode by using phone encryption or secure startup (available on Samsung devices).
!This feature is not reversible, so use it only when absolutely necessary!
Minimal system requirements:
a keyboard, a mouse, a webcam, 2GB RAM, Intel Core i5
Minimal system requirements:
Android 5.0 and above, CPU architecture: ARM64-v8a
- Uninstall from Programs and Components as other programs
- When prompted during uninstall, enter the parental PIN code
- Do not enter any PIN and press Enter
- OR click Uninstall button without entering a PIN
Youtube tutorial:
- MyPhone Hammer Axe
- Sony Xperia S LT26i
- Samsung Galaxy Tab E SM-T561
- Samsung Galaxy J7 2017
- Samsung Galaxy s8
- OnePlus One A0001