Specialist Technical Inquiry - Online Journal

After getting feedback on my project proposal, I have amended the Gantt chart to add more time for the technical exploration involved in this project. The feedback was overall positive, with comments on my ability to convey ideas effectively. However, I also need to take care that I execute the things that I'm planning to do. This post will be covering the technical explorations into the physical components needed for this project. Based on  this tutorial , I'm planning to purchase a  HC05 or HC06 module, which should be able to enable my Arduino Uno to communicate with other devices using Bluetooth. HC-06 Bluetooth Module In terms of dealing with battery charging, I'm considering making a toy which has wireless charging, so that users don't need to open up their plush toy each time they need to charge their toy module. With this in mind, after looking through these instructions and consulting with Ron the tutor , I've decided that instead of coiling up...

This post will primarily be more in-depth research into one of the competing toys I included in my project proposal. I chose Furby to research further due to its similarities with my project, as well as my personal familiarity with Furby in the past. Furby Initially launched in 1998, Furby is a robotic toy with a roundish egg-shaped body, two feet, big ears, and eyes which could blink. The body shape has been compared to a hamster or an owl. The original release saw sales of over 40 million Furbys, indicating that there was a market demand for toys who had their own voices and could interact with children. Early Furbys could react to sounds and being "fed" (by opening up the Furby's beak-like mouth). The popularity of Furby waned in later years until 2012 when Furby was rereleased with LCD screen eyes and an accompanying mobile app. This app enabled the new Furbys to play minigames, and feed it different "foods" by swiping food towards the Furby. This g...

The topic of interest that I finally settled on after discussing with my lecturers was to create an interactive module for a toy that could communicate with an app via Bluetooth. The purpose of the toy+app concept was to bring a voice to existing beloved toys, letting parents and children customise the voice messages that are played by the toy. To accomplish this, the toy module part needs to be small enough to fit into a versatile range of plush toy bodies, while the app part needs to have a simple user interface so that young children are able to use it. Some current considerations: - Main arduino board? - Uno or Nano? Nano much smaller but never worked with it before - Bluetooth module to communicate? - I could use a Bluno board maybe. - Music file storage - micro sd card? - Music playing capabilities - mp3 shield or homemade? - Power source? - what types of batteries and if it will be chargeable - Other forms of haptic feedback? using a vibrating motor might help indicate...

Another challenging topic I had considered tackling was kinetic sculptures, inspired by the kind of massive structures shown in this video. Obviously I wouldn't be able to make something to the same scale and technical skill, but I was curious about exploring different manufacturing methods, as well as implementing some level of physical computing to add more interactivity to a sculpture. As a part of the early conceptualisation process, I had considered making a miniature version of a sculpture, which would use an Arduino to control the movement. Early sketches (which will be added after I dig them up) included a musical spiderweb installation where strumming a web strand would cause the vibration to reverberate across the whole web, using light and sound to create an interesting spatial experience. Ultimately, this idea was trashed in favour of the next one, which will be explained in the next post.

Once again I need to blog for the sake of progress documentation, so here we are. For this module, we're required to produce an interactive digital artefact that delivers a narrative. At this point, I'm just laying out the basic concepts and ideas I have proposed and rejected, as well as the final idea that I ended up going with. 1. Film animatronics  When you google "animatronics", the first result that comes up in the imagines is from the horror franchise "Five Nights at Freddy's".  wheeee! nightmare fuel! Yeah this is NOT what i wanted to go for. Instead, I was curious about looking into the kind of animatronics that powered the early pre-CGI cinema, from the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to the original puppet Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. Nick Maley, Creature Design department Animatronics in this situation refers to robots which are created with the intent of simulating life, whether it's a human head or a little green al...