Introduction to task

Design an innovative electronic toy or game that reflects the wants and needs of its potential users.

During this task you will be given the opportunity to learn the following skills:

Designing:

• Investigate how existing toys look and function as a source of ideas for your own product

• Use a range of information sources to develop a specification and help to generate ideas

• Explore, develop and communicate your ideas

Making:

• Measure, mark out, cut and join rigid and flexible materials using tools and equipment to achieve a high quality finish

• Evaluate your product by testing and discussion

Systems and Control:

• Use microprocessors in products

Task analysis

Brief:Design an innovative electronic toy or game that reflects the wants and needs of its

potential users

Your Task:

• Innovative final product

• Use an electronic microcontroller

• Popular with its end user

INNOVATIVE:…featuring new methods; advanced and original… original and creative in thinking

MICROCONTROLLER:..is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit or chip intended to operate as an embedded system. As well as a CPU, a microcontroller typically includes small amounts of memory and input/output ports

END USER:..the ultimate user for whom a product is designed

Research Plan:

Task

• Investigate how existing toys look and function as a source of ideas for your own product

• Use a range of information sources to help generate ideas

• Use microprocessors in products

• Develop a specification

Use the web to find out which

toys are currently popular

Identify which themes are used

in toys and games

Identify traditional games for

improvement by innovation

Play, test, evaluate and

disassemble an existing toy

Find out how and where toys are

manufactured in large numbers

Use the web to produce an

image board to help you design

Investigate the components that

are used in electronic toys

Find out what role microcontrollers

have in toys

Find out how simple electronic microcontroller

systems function

Find out and rank the important

criteria in a good toy or game

“Get your research right and your project won’t fall apart later!”

TASK:Write out the Design Brief.Design an innovative electronic toy or game that reflects the wants and needs of its potential users

• Testing, evaluation and disassemble an existing toy

During this task the research is going to focus on the following aspects:

• The use of the web to find out which toys are currently popular

• Identification of which themes are used in toys and games

• Identification of traditional games for improvement by innovation

Research into existing products:

• Finding out how and where toys are manufactured in large numbers

Research into popular toys or games:

Independent research task:

Sales of toy products rise and fall depending on their popularity. You and your friends may have your own views on which are the best toys. Visit the web site below and check out who is in the top 20.

http://www.toynewsmag.com/retail-charts

Once you have found the chart, list the toys and use the internet to find out more about them. Discuss with others what makes these more popular than the thousands of others on sale.

Write down what you have found out.

Summary of possible findings:

Currently a popular theme

Innovative

Addictive

Always been a favourite

Unisex appeal

Why are certain toys are popular? Finding out will

help us develop a specification and a successful product.

Identify which themes are used in toys and games:

One way of making our product popular is to have use a well known theme in its design

Identify the theme in the following electronic toys or games:

WAR! HOSPITALS FOOTBALL

RECOGNISE ME?

Identify which themes are used in toys and games:

Some electronic toys have more than one theme

What are the themes of these games?

Some traditional games have been improved or made more popular by innovation through the use of electronics. Lets look at how ‘Battleships’ has evolved.

Battleships is a guessing game played by two people. It was invented in the early 1900s but nobody patented the game and it was soon published in the USA and called "Salvo".A toy manufacturing company called Milton Bradley (MB Games) published their version in 1943 as the pad-and-pencil game called Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy.

STARWARS theme introduced. Why?

Why is the peg gamebetter than pad and pencil?

The electronic versions have sound effects and help keep track of your hits and misses

PC version Mobile phone version

Identify traditional games for improvement by innovation:

Here are some existing steady hand games

In these games the user has to follow the puzzle wire without touching it or a buzzer makes a noise

TASK:The ‘Buzz Off’ game has seen its sales fall dramatically.

Make a list of ten different ways

you could improve the product so that it appeals to more customers

TASK:You now have some firm ideas of how the product could be improved.

Produce a mind map of possible

themes that could be used in this product.

Which of these two toys look the best?The left one is from the 1970s!

Play, test, evaluate and disassemble an existing toy

The body of the toy is made from polystyrene or ABS. It has a spare puzzle wire which slots into the base. The puzzle and handle is made from steel, plated in shiny chrome.

The base of the toy is a rounded shape. It has been made by an industrial process called ‘injection moulding’.It is hollow with a colourful sticky label ‘Buzz off!’ on one side.

The toy uses two small batteries, in series. There is a labelled ‘on/off’ slide switch underneath. The battery cover is held in place with a single screw. The flat base plate is held by two screws at each end. 

Learning about how existing toys are made can help us with our designing

Study each photograph and text information and fill in the missing words.

Play, test, evaluate and disassemble an existing toy

The electronics inside the toy are very simple.

There is a circuit which allows electric current

to flow through the buzzer when the wire handle touches the puzzle wire.

This is called a capacitor. It keeps the buzzer on for a couple of seconds after you touch the

wire. It stores electricity like a battery but only a tiny amount.

Puzzle wire and handle

Capacitor

Buzzer

Batteries

ON/Off Switch

After turning on the switch and then touching the puzzle wire and loop together the buzzer, batteries and switch make a

complete circuit and the buzzer comes on. The capacitor also fills up with electricity (charges up) so that when the loop disconnects from the puzzle the buzzer stays on for a second or two.

This is the buzzer

Manufacturing toys in large numbers

Task:Produce a fact sheet about plastic recycling.Show all the important symbols

• China has 8000 toy manufacturers, producing 30,000 different products. The have 70% of the world’s toy market, worth over $15 billion each year.• Some people criticise China for having dangerous and unhealthy working conditions in many factories.• Most toys made in China are labelled with familiar brand names• Most toys are manufactured from styrene polymers using injection moulding• In the EU toys comply with regulations (88/378/EEC)• There are seven standards in the BS EN 71 series of toy safety standards. There is also a standard covering the electrical safety of toys – BS EN 50088 • By putting CE on the product the manufacturer is telling the customer that the toy complies with EU safety regulations.

What do each of these symbols mean?

Injection Moulding

Plastic granules are put into the hopper

They are pushed into the heated zone by the motor driven screw

The melted plastic is forced into a mould by the hydraulic system

When the mould is filled, the flow stops and cools back to a solid

The mould automatically opens and the plastic case falls out

Using injection moulding to make a plastic case out of a styrene polymer or ABS

Task: Discuss and list the advantages and disadvantages of this manufacturing process in toy production