Our families may be in close proximity or far away, but even on the laziest days we don’t interact and take time out to be with them. So here is tic-tac-yo! – an interactive lamp which lets you play tic-tac-toe with the people you love. The idea behind it is to show appreciation and love by acknowledging and reciprocating your presence and taking out 0.10 seconds of your life to play the tic tac toe game.
The Product comes with 2 lamps – one for you and the other for your loved one! The lamp is to be placed in a busy environment of your life and it glows whenever one of the lamp owners plays a move.
Our families may be in close proximity or far away, but even on the laziest days we don’t interact and take time out to be with them. My name is Rohitha, I am the maker of tic-tac-yo! – an interactive lamp which lets you play tic-tac-toe with the people you love. The idea behind it is to show appreciation and love by acknowledging and reciprocating your presence and taking out 0.10 seconds of your life to play the tic tac toe game.
The Product comes with 2 lamps – one for you and the other for your loved one! The lamp is to be placed in a busy environment of your life and it glows whenever one of the lamp owners plays a move.
For the video I want to make it like a making/advertisement video, so we have story where users are shown living busy lives and missing calls and texts from loved ones and not having time to even interact with a generous “hi”.
And then we see an alternate world where tic-tac-Yo! Is making the users feel present and loved because of a very small interaction with this product.
Use busy place noises to add more dramatic affect and then transform it into light and happy background music when using the product. Show some smiles at the end.
Might film it in PoD or a friends home where we have a shoe stand or a corridor where we can place the object!
I went as EVA from Wall-e for Halloween 2022, and here is how it went!
Its started of with some basic sketches
The most frustrating part of the Costume for me was actually curating the different parts of the Costume… Because amazon gave up on me. I did a very last minute Micheal’s run in Secaucus – because all the New York stores were out of Everything – its Halloween!
This is the shopping list : – Foam Roll 8 mm(Micheal’s) – Velcrose (Home depot) – S.W.A.T Helmet – White paint(Blick) – Arduino Gemma M0 – LED Strip – Chipboard
Here are some Process Images
Since we have 2 pieces of circuit we needed to make a parallel connection, you can use this circuit diagram for reference :
There were many design alteration during the process especially with the costume itself because foam is difficult to work with on the sewing machine, so I had to use foam glue and take for most part. also the head is difficult to carve out so we ended yup using a helmet and painting it white.
For the body we will be using white foam sheet to make the front and back of the body and then sew it in place together.
To wear it, 2 straps which will rest on the shoulder.
2. Arms
For the arms to make them look mechanical, I will use a white cardboard piece on the back and foam to the front and stuff it will poly-fill and hold it in place using 2 straps
3. Head
The eyes will be lit and will reside parallel to the forehead. (Not eyes) this will be achieved using a crown structure on the inside of the helmet with wire.
I am still confused about how to make the helmet for the head part, exploring options as i want to retain he shape.
I am exploring lighting options I will be using blue light strip, not LED as it is too bright and does not produce the smoothness required for the costume.
Dancing whale is a stuff toy for kids with down syndrome. Studies show that children with down syndrome are reluctant to playing with toys with light or excess movement as down syndrome can cause development disfunctions and deficits in pattern integration and cognitive abilities.
So the Dancing whale is a soft toy with blue wave light patterns which are smooth lighting not harsh lighting, which will light up in waves and make the toy seem soothing compared to other lighting toys in the market.
Here as some reference sketches
To Implement this I bought my basic fabric and also started researching on stitching patterns. Though i don’t have a circuit in place yet i did experiment with LED Buld lighting which will not work for my toy, so i will need to use LED Strip or other forms of lighting – ordered LED Light on amazon.
My main concerns with building the to are – 1. Matching the Fabric and light hues 2. Whether to use transparent tubing or smoky tubing 3. Making sure that the tube is not popping out of the toy and sits within the spectrum of the fabric 4. How to stich the tail.
To ideate I did some online search and here are the references :
Apart from the Dancing whale, I also ideated on Mr. WAI and Stretchy feet.
Mr. WAI – Mr. Who am I, Is a toy intended for toddlers especially in preschool. It can be worn as an everyday tag and lights up to the color you want. The color specifies which identity the toddler wants to take up for the day.
Whereas, Stretchy feet is a toy for babies which helps them stretch their legs away from their body.
SVA MFA PoD
Making Studio
Assignment 1 – Teardown of an appliance/electronic device.
“Charge while you listen to Music”
PUGZ is tiled the World’s smallest wireless earbuds (as of 2015) which can be charged through your phone or any electronic device that you are carrying!
The Designers specify PUGZ to have minimal size & shape which allows perfect fit and music experience!
PUGZ was started its production officially in 2014 and started their distribution form 2015 through 2016.
We are looking at a specific model of PUGZ for this assignment which is the PUGZ Leaking . The PUGZ leaking is manufactured with “ear gel design” that directs the audio into your ear but lets you hear a bit of your surroundings.
OTG Charging
The power backup for PUGZ is said to be very sustainable it uses 3% of your smart phone battery capacity to charge your PUGZ you get 4.5 hours of music and 10 days of standby. You can also plug into your phone and listen while charging, often called ‘OTG’ On the go charging.
The USP behind PUGZ is in the Go charging facility. Apart from this the designers’ were solving also for these issues :
Generic earphones are too Big
Bluetooth earphones run out of batteries
Lightweight, minimal in size.
Sweat proof – IP64
Microphone – 6th gen dual-mic cVc® advanced audio enhancements and noise suppression
Teardown
The Integrated Bluetooth ROM is part of the Qualcomm CSR8645 series.
The CSR8645 is a dual-mode (Audio output and microphone input) ROM Chip is designed to offer extensive voice and music capabilities in a ROM-based package, including
aptX [aptX is a proven technology that compresses and then decompresses audio as it travels from a source device like a phone, to a receiving device like a wireless speaker, in a way that it can be transmitted over Bluetooth without damaging the quality. ] and
cVc [clear voice capture) noise echo cancelling and noise suppression technology is designed to transmit crystal clear voice quality when making calls.]
Making it ideal for a variety of wireless audio products with support for voice and music. The CSR8645 has a range of silicon platforms for wireless audio applications which integrate a dual-mode Bluetooth radio, an application processor, a battery charger, memory and various audio and hardware interfaces into a single-chip solution. The CSR8645 is an easy and cost-effective platform for developing …more
The OTG – On the Go charging is made available by “open circuit” system that is completed using magnets. The switch system is built using 18k gold and is connected using gold wires to a copper wiring system.
The charge plates on the charger and the earphones are connected using a magnet.
The product in itself it made of plastic, rubber, wire, circuit boards, and gold.
The entire circuit system and speaker is enclosed in a thermoplastic casing which is is given a gloss finishing. The sound filter is made up of metal.
The wires are as most wires made up of copper. The wire system has 4 wires consist of a common ground and; left earphone +, right earphone +, and microphone.
When dismantling the product I did misinterpret a lot of the parts in terms of how the were manufactured or what the part was attached in the system. May be this will give you a an idea of how it was
Here are some honest Customer reviews
When I connected it to my phone as well I faced the below 2 issues
– The Bluetooth connectivity was very poor, and
– The earphones did not work unless connected to the charger
Why did the designers do it this Way?
2 design Elements that absolutely Boggle me are :
1. Standard Vs. Sports Earbuds – What really confused me or kept me thinking was when I used the earphones the standard earbuds kept falling off the ear, whereas the sport earbuds were intact despite jumping or running. When inspected closely the standard earbuds had a flat base which was to be inserted into the ear. We all know our ears are not hat simple. So the flat base did not hold still against the protruding ear walls and kept sliding off.
StandardSports
The Sports model also had the same design for the “in-ear” part – it was flat too, but what kept it in position was that there was is extra “grip-bit” on the outside. It acted like a counter force to against the ear somewhat like a lever system, which put pressure from the outside while the in-ear piece was pushing it out, a perfect push-pull scenario!
2. The “SQUIRCLE“ – The designers have on multiple posts and videos mentioned the unique shape they have used for designing – the Squircle – neither a square nor a circle.
if we speak in terms of design this shape just confuses me! The shape to my eyes in not very satisfactory to look at and feels asymmetrical
in terms of conducting electricity. Square shaped conductors have sharp corners and Electric field is not uniform when we consider any shape with corners e.g. square, rectangle etc., and negative charge accumulates at corners.
In circular shape have their own advantages and disadvantages – advantages being more!- from what I have read about them, depending on may factors such as the amount or charge they are holding material type and thickness circular objects have more usability in electronics. So unsure of why Circle was not considered?
Writing about myself is always the hardest part because I don’t now how to START! So I decided to start with an honest opening!
My name is Rohitha Remala and I am all the way from India. I am a Food-Lover and enthusiastic about architecture and I like building stuff – very vague. I love to Cook, shop and paint houses (Weird I know!).
This is Me!
Psss! … I painted the wall you see on the back!
You can see more about me from my personal Instagram account – rohitha.r or see a few of my works on my professional account [Disclaimer : It is fairly new] here – rohremala
My background is in engineering, and I majored in information technology. I worked as a freelance web developer for 6 months and then tasted the corporate life for 2 years as a business analyst for a fintech company.
Now you must be wondering why the hell am I here? – well the answer is I KNOW WHAT I DONT WANT TO DO!, and that is the last 2 years of my life. I realized that I didn’t want to become a business analyst or a coder for the rest of my life and started exploring different domains. I took a shot a product design and loved what new universes it is capable of taking people into, And that is how I got here!
Some of the things I am interested in are Physics, psychology, astrology, climate, mythology and conspiracy theories.
