The Art and Craft of Toy Design

Wireless Toys Class Photo

midterm projects in hand. : ))
flickr link...

AnimaLand

AnimaLand
By Alexis Lloyd, Ana Velez, and Dave Pasquel

AnimaLand is a wireless interactive plush toy and educational game that helps children to learn about animals and their living environment. Children can play with the plush toys and receive immediate responses from an animated, screen-based character and environment.  For children ages 3-5.

Plush Toys

 

 

Flash Interface

Video

Battle Ninjas

Battle Ninjas
Wireless plush action figures
Jason Hare & Linh Pham

Battle Ninjas are action plushies that attack one another through wireless communication. By squeezing a ninjas belly you can send a devastating psychic attack to any opposing ninja. The only defense from another ninjas attack is to touch your ninjas arms together so that he can properly defend himself.  If you have successfully defended an attack your ninja will vibrate as he deflects the psyhic strike while preparing him self for a counter attack. Otherwise you will know you've been hit when you hear the agonizing growl from your ninja as an enemies strike lands.  Although these ninjas are battle hardened warriors they are made with micro fleece so when your finish sparring they still will be softer than a babies behind. Along with the a soft micro fleece exterior the Battle Ninjas also flaunt the latest in custom robes that are not only reflect your ninjas individual style, but also show any rival who's boss.   

Byzantine Madonna

This toy is based on byzantine Marys. She has polymer clay head hands and feet and a cloth body. Her "shrine" packaging has a triptych of her story, becoming what her greek name is (top of triptych), the "mother of god".

Hit Me! 4-way Racing Game

Project Name: Hit Me!
Concept: 4-way Wireless Gameplay
Designers: Adam and Jonah

Hit Me! is a racing game that explores multi-player interaction in a wireless space. Hacked remote controls send cars flying as players, two on each team, battle it out. There are several poles scattered across the game field, each worth a certain number of game points. These poles light up (activate) randomly, one at a time. The object of the game is to knock over each active pole and push your opponent's car off the road. A digital scoreboard keeps track of all the mayhem and destruction, so players can keep an eye on the wheel.

The race cars have a crazy steering system. Each car is controlled by two separate remotes, one for gas and break and the other for left-right steering. Players on a team must share control of their car, making this a game of cooperative skills. The team with the best record of destruction takes the grand prize.

Related Posts 
Prototyping a final project - 4 way interaction
Schematic

Bunny Christmas Show

Group project by Jenny Wu & Rafael Mejia

Lainey & Blainey are two talentless bunnies who want to be famous. They came to the city in hopes of finding fame, but instead found that no one would take them seriously, (that and the fact that they didn't have any talent either) so instead they went and did a webcam show for people. They perform 3 simple acts right now, (they're not very smart either) so it'll take us a while to teach them a few new tricks. Their show runs into the next few weeks so check them out. Please note performance times are not yet posted yet.

Lainey & Blainey on their set

the bunnies performing live in our class. Bunnies blushing cause they won't kiss each other. what kind of people out there want 2 bunnies to kiss each other?

Bunnies are MAD cause someone told them to lose weight! You don't want an angry bunny.

The bunnies shake their stuff and you can hear the bell on their bows jingle a bit.

now watch the bunnies...

To see the works in process of this project go here.

Caffeine Alert

Caffeine Alert is a wireless blog toy packaged inside a jar of premium blend coffee beans. At home in the kitchen or dining room, the toy is designed to simplify blog subscriptions, and bring them into a more social and glanceable space.

When a new post arrives, the coffee buzzes and lights up in one of four colors, so you can keep track of your favorite RSS feeds without sitting in front of the computer. When ground and served, the coffee beans provide hours of caffeine-driven blogging. The toy can be easily refilled with your choice of coffee beans (and new batteries) when the supply runs out.

Caffeine Alert, like Becky's Chatter IM pillow, uses the Plushie Message Framework (PMF) to connect Internet data with Arduino and signal wireless output. PMF can be extended for custom uses using a class-based PHP4 system. Current modules allow you to watch instant messages on Adium and to subscribe to a set of RSS feeds. The script runs as a background process that routes signals off to the receiving wireless toy, by way of the Arduino.

 

Related:
Source code for Caffeine Alert
Original Post with Intro & Flowchart
Work in Progress + Photoset

Electro Plush Rocker

The Oligarks! - Becky, Kimba and Shannon's final project

Klaus Herluf wants you to do him! Them!

Here is a PDF with instructions (2 pages, around 1MB)

Final Toy - Hamguin

Hamguin air-drying:

Hamguin happily colored:

Hamguin happy inside his hamburger bun home:

the back of the hamburger bun packaging:

the story of how he opened up his own hamburger chain, Hamguin's Hamburgers:

    

Blood cells, Fish mobile

I made two red blood cells, one normal and one sickle. The healthy cell lights up bright white, and the sickle-cell lights up a dimmer purple, indicating it is poorly oxygenated. In the light (switched off):

In the dark:

I also made this mobile from some Swedish fabric I had stashed away (heh, get it? Swedish? fish?). My cat got a kick out of the extra plushy fish:

Remote toys for intercontinental families

I want to make a toy that will allow me to play with my 7 month-old neice and year.5-old nephew, who live in Germany and Virginia, respectively. I video chat with them on a regular basis, but I can't play. Perhaps I can write a video processing program that will allow me to move my body in front of the camera and effect a light-up or noise-making toy remotely. The wireless module would be used to connect the plushie to the remote computer and receive/send data through the internet to the video program. Squeezing one part of the toy may make it rain flowers over the video of me, for example, providing an interaction between me and my far-away family. To summarize: I can make the toy light up through video processing, and they can affect what happens to their video view of me through poking at the toy. Interaction notes: My neice really likes small things she can grab (but not swallow) and things she can bang on.

On another note, I made more of my wireless steaks, wired them up to my Arduino board, and made them eerily glow. Aaaaand they got posted to the Make: Magazine Blog. There's a video of them on my Thesis Blog. I got plenty of insigtful comments about meat irradiation, but not a terrible lot on the contstruction and implementation of my plushies.

Finished Virtual Kisses

Virtual Kisses are two pairs of plushie lips that allow you to send a little love to your partner or roommate from one room in the house to another.  Virtual Kisses love to be hugged and squeezed. Squeezing your lips will make them vibrate with happines, and a kiss will be sent to your partner's lips, causing them to light up (and making your partner smile).

Here's a Flickr photoset documenting the production process:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixielex/sets/72157594375533722/

DinnerTimer

When we work in our computers they usually absorb all our attention and we forget that it is dinner time. DinnerTimer will remind us that it is time to eat. Activated by a plushie fork and a knife, which are in the kitchen, the fish, on the desk, lights up its eye and vibrates.

Mock up

Process

Fish lighting and "vibrating"

Rosita, The Sheep

Zeebu Lives!

A long time ago, sometime in the future, Zeebu gained
consciousness. However, she was born into a land where
robots were only machines.They were not allowed to
have feelings, but Zeebu's creator made her able to love.
When the government found out about this "experiment,"
they took away the programs and circuits of Zeebu's real
eyes and mouth so she could not communicate with anyone,
and exiled her.
She never hated humans, she just understood them
more. Her compassion merely grew. Animals could even
feel her love, and one day a bird who was very clever
decided to take care of her and help her "see" the world.
You can guide her too, if you would like to get to know her.

If you give Zeebu candy, she will be so happy because
it is her favorite thing to eat. Her favorite flavor is
unrefined oil. Mmmm.

Zeebu cares about her yellow bird the most. She likes
to stroke its head. It loves her very much.

Mice send Zeebu into epileptic fits, for some reason
she does not know. No one ever told her.

But one thing is for sure, Zeebu loves YOU!

Zeebu's heart glows with love,
even in the dark.

Zeebu with Bird, Candy, Heart and Mouse, a dynamic family!

go to see process.

>>O<<

Try and make it your self...
1. Blue

2. Green

3. Purple

Double side print...

Lucifer, Conqueror

The Luminites only realized the potential hazard that lurked in their continuous dumping of toxic and radioactive wastes into the largest crater of their home moon  after it fully realized and the zombie rose. They nicknamed it Valentine because it "would stop your heart," and the masses felt a little better upon hearing that the government was in the process of dealing with Valentine.
    Though the minions that Valentine "converted" were easily  dealt with, he could not be. Valentine could not be subdued by force, his brute strength and radioactivity destroyed anything that got close enough to try.
    After many terrible years of destruction, the elite scientists of Lumina produced a new light whose glow could potentially calm Valentine by stabilizing his radioactive decay. However, the light had to be applied to the zombie from close range, and there was still nothing that existed to survive so close to him so the light could work.
    Again the scientists went into seclusion for a time. After many failings, they managed to splice the molecular structure of the very rare Lucine crystal (which could not be affected by radiation) and that of an adult Luminite and they created Lucifer, in whose right hand was implanted the "Soothe Star."
    The final battle took about five minutes, and Valentine was in a meditative rest. The zombie's reign was over. The citizens were safe. Lucifer and the scientists were celebrated across the moon as great heroes.
    However,  unforeseen by the scientists was Lucifer's unquenchable greed for power, and there was nothing to stop him from threatening innocent Luminites with Zombie Wrath until they gave him everything he wanted. Overnight, the moon was forged to the whims of Lucifer.
    As for the scientists, they grabbed what equipment they could and retreated to the distant mountains. "At least..." they said to themselves, "at least we stopped the zombie. We only have to come up with a new strategy."

"Valentine's Last Stand"

"Lucifer's Victory"

"Herald of Light"

I also tried to create my own 3D pattern, but it was a terrible failure. Nevertheless I finished it, and it looked like this:

Pink Mutant Beet-Hampster.

Liam Final Project

Here are pictures of Liam in toy version with his packaging as well as a narrative explaining his origin. There are also pictures showing the progression of Liam while I was sculpting him.