Emotion Box
Project Overview:
The Playful Emotion is a box that creates a feeling of playfulness in the user. When the box is closed, the user is invited to put on a pair of finger shoes and walk along an LED-lit path, leading to the box’s latch. Once opened, a hopscotch platform lights up and invites the user to play. The hopscotch path lights up different patterns for the user to accomplish with their finger shoes, and once completed some celebratory cheers are heard.
Personal Tasks:
Interviewed users during ideation process
Constructed final physical prototype for box
Wrote algorithm for electronic system of inputs/outputs
Managed wiring and sensor setup and housing in box
Skills:
Mechatronics
User interaction
Laser-cutting
The Brainstorming:
My team of three discussed possible ways of eliciting a playful feeling in the audience. We initially asked around to see what people thought of when they heard the word ‘playful’. Common answers included jungle gyms, games, and fun. A lot of peers also said what made them feel playful also made them feel nostalgic. Keeping this in mind, we sought to brainstorm ideas that were within the overlap of fun and nostalgic.
Eventually, we landed on the idea of designing an interactive hopscotch floor, in a box completely decorated with chalk.
The Ideating:
Now that we had the basic idea in place, we had to specify the nitty gritty of the box layout (i.e what’s on the outside of the box, how does the user know to open the box, etc).
Since the the concept involves the user stepping into a playful world, the user must intuitively realize they need to play hopscotch with their fingers. Therefore, we decided to have some finger shoes places on the lid of the box that user puts on to play hopscotch. Once the pick up the shoes, the lid lights up a trail to the notch of the box that the user should open. Upon opening, the user sees the hopscotch track and uses the shoes to play.
The Prototyping:
We divided the project into three subsections: mechatronics, physical construction, and decoration. We worked on the first two subsections simultaneously, and the last one towards the end of the design process.
MECHATRONICS
We used IR (infrared) sensors and Neopixel LEDs for the hopscotch subsystem. Additionally, we used a speaker and SD card to play playful music and cheers when the user completed the hopscotch track. The lid of the box had it’s own subsystem comprising of an IR sensor and Neopixels to light up a track leading the lid notch upon picking up of the finger shoes.
PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION
The box was made out of foam core and coated with black chalkboard paint. The bottom half of the box held the mechatronic components, and was covered by the hopscotch ‘floor’.
The hopscotch squares were laser-cut from a sheet of acrylic, and stuck to the middle floor of the box.
DECORATION
The ceiling of the box (when opened) had a vibrant crayon sky with cotton clouds. Colorful chalk was used to decorate every wall on the inside and outside of the box.
The Final Solution:
Below you can see our final playful box.
Takeaways:
Brainstorming: Ask around! People’s interpretations of your idea can be insightful, and help gear your thoughts before taking the idea forward
Ideation: Once you have your components in place, rank them by priority to see what’s the main/minimum deliverable
Mechatronics: Divide into subsystems and test separately for ease of debugging
Mechanical Design: Think about outlets and inlets before sticking anything! Make sure there’s a place for wires to get in/out/stay hidden