Through the front door and down the stairs of a Canton home, you will find the engineering lab of Greet-O-Matic and it's 10-year-old CEO, Christian Blankenbaker.
"I was tired of opening up greeting cards first [before the presents,] it was annoying," Blankenbaker said.
Greeting cards, so last century.
Christian's idea: create a digital greeting card that will play the moment the present is opened. That's when he brought his dad on board.
"I worked with him, got his ideas on what he wanted to call it;he named it," Phillip Blankenbaker said. "He came up with the logo and created the prototype."
That's when Greet-o-Matic was officially born. After several prototypes, this was the result.
"Happy birthday Ta! You rock! from Christian Blankenbaker."
Turns out, our Local 4 photographer, Ta Johnson, has a birthday on Monday. So Christian demonstrated how it works. After he recorded that message, he wrapped it up along with a present.
Once Ta opened the gift, and the device hit the light, it played his message.
Dad and son recently launched their project on Kickstarter. Through the help of more than 100 backers, they've surpassed their funding goal and then some.
"It's pretty cool," Phillip Blankenbaker said. "He's certainly doing more than I was when I was 10. I'm really proud of him."
The next step for the company is to begin producing the Greet-o-matics and start sending them out in September.
For more information on the Greet-o-matic, including its many uses beyond digital greeting cards, head to Christian's kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/464613118/greet-o-matic?ref=nav_search