Making Toys 6

Slothra on Hackaday

Thanks to Caleb at hackaday.com for the post!

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/15/slothra-arduino-powered-plushy-sloth/

Project 1: Glow Hive

Glow Hive [Final] from Daniel Willig on Vimeo.

Project 2: Beat Hat

Beat Hat from Daniel Willig on Vimeo.

Project 3: Slothra

Slothra from Daniel Willig on Vimeo

Slothra: The Destroyer. Prototypes

SKETCH

LOOK & FEEL

  

ROLE

IMPLEMENTATION

Sloth Role Prototype from Dan Willig on Vimeo.

download code

Dissected Duck

There's a part of me that was sad to say goodbye to ducky. He'll live on through this blog.

Mechanical Duck Dissection from Dan Willig on Vimeo.

"Musical" Hat

Here's the documentation of my musical toy. My first iteration, that was just in a box, was to experiment with the code and functionality. I then moved this into a kid's top hat casing. The code is borrowed from the Bevis Audio project. The sounds are grating but with additional iterations it could evolve into a much smoother sounding toy.

"Musical" Hat from Dan Willig on Vimeo.

download code

Glow Hive: final prototype

Glow Hive from Dan Willig on Vimeo.

Downloads:
code
sale sheet

Feedback on GlowHive prototypes

I shared my earlier prototypes with 4 of my friends, family and peers. Below is a summary of the feedback I received on each of these prototypes

Look and Feel:

- Why as a wall piece?

- Would be better as a desk piece, "like a lamp" for mobility

- "Keep the lights dim so you can fall asleep to it"

- The white hive was preferred by 3 out of the 4 users

- "Very organic"

- "A little creepy"

Implementation:

Push button code

- Asks too much from the user

- "Awkward to control"

- "Boring after a minute"

Blinking code

- Change the colors

- Make it based on the mood of the hive

- "It would be better if it was less formulaic" 

- Preferred to the push button because you can just sit back and watch it play

Role:

- "would be great for a kid who's afraid of the dark"

- "I could use it for meditation"

- "the bug metaphor would scare my daughter"

- "would be nice for a light at a dance party"

Light project - Week 3

These are my look and feel prototypes:

These are my personas/scenarios: