Fluffle Prototype
This is my prototype, Fluffle. He’s a little furry dust-bunny like creature that lives on my desk and let’s people know when I’m available to talk, or when I am “heads down” and working. When I need to focus, Fluffle turns blue. When I’m free, he turns his light off and takes a nap. He’s an ideal desk companion for students or office workers who want a friendly way to let colleagues know when they prefer not to be disturbed 🙂
His pattern was very simple — just a blob shape. I’d like to add feet in the next iteration. It would be great if his feet had wires inside so they could be bent to allow him to perch, or possibly magnets so they could snap together and he could hang upside down 🙂
original pattern
He was entirely inspired by the white faux fur material that he is made out of. He’s filled with stuffing surrounding a ping-pong-ball used to the diffuse the light from my single-LED circuit, and he really came to life when I put eyes on him:
Sketch Explorations
I did some sketches exploring alternate concepts, such as an LED bouquet of flowers, a “crossing man” sign, or a puffer fish. Ultimately I kept returning to the furry creature in one form or another: in the below sketches you can see a few variations including an abominable snowman style creature with horns, and a bunny like creature with ears and a tail.
Circuit Diagram
The Fluffle prototype uses a single LED circuit, as diagramed below:
He only glows blue, to indicate that I’m in “Focus Time”.
I would love it if Fluffle could have some further communication with me as I am working. Maybe Fluffle can glow different colors, to indicate different things, such as green to indicate I’m available to talk, or yellow to remind me that it’s time to take a break after a set period of time. Maybe I can create multiple Fluffles, that can talk to each other, changing their light to white when their desk owners get together for group work 🙂
Materials I will need:
- white faux fur ✅
- pipe cleaners or wire ✅
- magnets for toes
- stuffing ✅
- ping pong ball ✅
- blue or multicolored LED
- my circuit! ✅
Yayy Monty this is all very lovely. Your plan to add feet with wires and/or magnets sounds great. Carry on.
Love the concept and the prototype! I agree with your comment at the end that multiple light options would be cool. If you only have time for one, blue feels like an ambiguous color to choose (albeit calming for head-down time). Red or Green clearly communicate ‘Stop’ or ‘Go.’
Hi Monty, I love your Fluffle! I like how you use lights to show emotions. Fluffle kind of reminds me of a small cute monster. If you make multiple fluffles it could be cool to photograph them with people who are working on their desks. I like how you want the colors to change so maybe you can use the RGB led but maybe that’s kind of complicated.💙
Monty!!! Like i said for multiple times, I love ur furry night toy. I will feel so peace if it’s my night light and it gives me comfortable vibe. Yours is so perfect that i hardly give any suggestions. but if i make it, i may add one more led light in it, for example, a red one for anger and blue one for happy… Again, this is cuteeee!
Very cute plush bunny, I love the choice of color for your lamp, it gives the bunny a mysterious look. I like your idea about adding feet, it would allow the plush bunny to perch in more places than just the table. Looking forward to your finished product!