toyprojectg1-blog

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Gallery set up

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Risk assessment

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Interactive Toy - Production

For the production of this toy the following parts are needed:

1x Breadboard

1x RedBoard or Arduino Uno

4x LEDs

1x Piezo Buzzer

4x 330Ω Resistors

4x Push Buttons

17x Jumper Wires

Cardboard

Double-sided tape

The first step is to make sure the breadboard is connected both to the positive (5V) and negative (GND) poles of the Arduino. This way we have active current on our breadboard. Once that is done, we connect the LED lights correspondent resistors. Each LED will connect both to the negative line and the resistor's row, and finally connect the same rows to the Arduino on slots ~3, ~5, ~10, 13 and 13. The next step is to connect all four buttons, and making sure they're all connected the negative line, and to the Arduino on slots 2, ~6, ~9, 12. And finally, the sound chip will be connected to the breadboard and wired to Arduino on slots 4 and 7. For aesthetic purposes we wrapped our prototype inside a cardboard box, enabling a better and much more comfortable experience for the user. The final step is to inject the code into the Ardino. This code is responsible for the sound range reproduced by our Piezo Buzzer, associating each color of the LED to a different Hertz, reproducing a different sounds. It will also associate each slot to a different function, which leads to different reactions for each element on the breadboard, randomizing the whole process making the game much more interesting.

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Interactive Toy - Learning

Our learning of Arduino initially started in class with the lecturer. We started off by making simple projects to make sure we can do the basics. After this, we experimented on a few projects we found online to become more familiar with the functionality and the entire process of building. 

Another important aspect of the learning was the familiarity of the equipment and its purposes. By understanding what every piece of equipment does, we were able to put them to use and it expanded our ability to create more better projects.

After a week of practice and trial and error, we reduced our ideas for the final project down to three. Based on what we had learned by the second week, we ended up building a memory game as it was the most successful one and the most enjoyable.

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A bit of our experimenting

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3D render of final toy

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Interactive toy-research

After coming up with the idea of our project we started researching, the production techniques and the code of we have to do. We found a lot online and a lot of different advice from people. Here is some of what we found. 

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Interactive toy- Idea development

When starting arduino we started by doing a lot of different tutorials on the funduino tutorial page. The tutorials were pretty basic and involved exercise like connecting buttons on LED's, and two flashing lights and a ultrasound sensor with a buzzer etc. They were useful and taught us the basics of arduinos. After that we were put into groups and had to come up with a idea for an interactive toy. While looking through the equipment I noticed that most of the equipment that we we had were LED's. 

So i decided to keep the project simple and make it interactive through the involvement of buttons and led lights. our idea was pretty basic but we thought it makes for an addictive toy. After looking through the internet I found a memory game using colors. It would flash a color, (say red) if you press the corresponding button you would of go the answer correct and then it would flash red the green (for example). they red, green blue, then red, green blue, red. The combinations would increases by an increment of 1 and the more you got correct the harder the game got. This makes the game harder how ever it makes the game more addictive. our project also involved using a buzzer. So every color has its own note to it, so you could also play the game with out seeing after a while.