The Art and Craft of Toy Design

Wireless Toys Class Photo

midterm projects in hand. : ))
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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)