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! ✅