RAFFRobot. And. Friend. Forever

Gregor JonesC3340589BA Design

Intro:“A device to entertain bored young children on a car journey”

We are initially asked to analyse the chosen context and explore it in its wildest sense, thinking about human interaction and behaviour. As we are no longer children we will have to develop our brains to think like a child. My idea shall be focused on solving the identified issues and put for-ward a new approach to the initial brief.

We are asked to develop a design for a idea of a piece of HARDWARE which should have a USER INTERFACE which can either be digitally inter-active or physically or it could incorporate both.The main focus we are asked to concentrate on is the usability of the product, the relationship between the product and the user, focusing on how they react to it. The scale of the product will be hand held size, so to be able to fit into a young childs hand.

Digital product which has a physical and digital interface which is what I am aiming to achieve, by doing this I will be researching into the different toys out in the market which have been developed for a young child ones that I have found are: Bop-It, lights out 2000, 20 Questions. These 3 toys all have a physical and digital interface. I have been researching into software which is able to talk and ways to work with it, such as bop-it it tells you what you have to do like giving in-structions.I have researched into the different sizes of toys and I have found out that most of the toys are ranged between 30cm(300mm) to as small as 10cm(100mm) The reason behind this is that the toy is not to big for the childs hand and not to small for the child to chew on and choke. Most of the other product don’t include small parts because of health and Safety regulations.From my research I have found out that most of the kids toys nowadays are electronic such as the DS which is young children’s favourite toy, this is the new era but my product will try and bring back the old ways of toys where you are able to play with them, such as action man.The rationale behind my concept design will have a communication such as a voice, the product will talk to the user to make them develop their dialect and help with speech.

Interaction Development:A interactive cube that you are able to select a variety of games to play such as guess who and 20 questions, the CUBO is able to re-spond via a communication software which is fitted inside so when you are playing 20 Ques-tions you are able to say yes or no and the CUBO can recognise the respond you give it and will ask another question.

CUBO has a l.E.D lit face which changes to how well you are either play-ing the game and changes shape when talking. CUBO has 4 sides which have the 4 faces displayed in different colours.

Buttons which al-low you to select the game you want to play.

Developing the idea further I have incor-porate a touch screen which will allow the user to have more of a choice of what to do on CUBO such as play a board game on the screen for example Snakes and Ladders.

Touch Screen I have incorporated 2 speakers and 2 microphones on the top of CUBO so it can pick up sound and dispense a voice.

Magic Box is a 5 sided box which has 5 touch screens which you are able to use to select a variety of tasks:Games: select a variety of games which you can play via touch or voice.Maps: shows the child where abouts you are on a map.Internet: browse the internet.Music: play music via the box and each side of the box flashes different col-ours to the music.Videos: plays a selection of videos on the screen.Each screen is its own so when selecting games it only shows the game on the one screen unless it is needed by the game, such as colour touch each side has a different colour which you will have to touch when the cube tells you.

I have used the basic idea from CUBO and developed it so that the user can have a much larger variety of tasks, I have also incorporated a much wider user interaction by using physical, digital and voice interaction.

Rubber stoppers to give it a better grip if left on a surface so it doesn’t slide off and brake

Speaker with in-corporated micro-phone

Interaction Development:

When looking to incorporate emotion into the cube I started to look at the colours of the cube, instead of staying one colour I looked into the cubes colour changing abilities to make it more affective with emotions, such as when you are winning its a light blue to show happiness and when losing it turns red.

By using the basic interaction ideas from CUBO and MAGIC CUBE, I have been looking at developing the basic form of the toy just to make it more attractive to a young child, and capture their imagination in robot character.I have been looking to incorporate physical interaction and giving the toy a robot form makes the young children play with the toy even if it runs out of battery, this supplies them with endless fun.

Form Development:

Working with the same basic technology, Speech, physical and touch, I have developed it into the body of a ro-botic teddy bear which has a voice recognition software which allows the user to have a conversation with the toy, so you can ask it anything and it will response like a real human but a little robot. It will also be developed to play voice activated games like in CUBO (pg 3). I have used a bear because it is one of the most renowned toys that children are attracted to and you are able to work with it in many ways but unfortunately not change its features as much. The bear has a touch screen so you are able to select different games and other options like Magic Cube (pg 3). it has the basic software as before but much more advanced so it allows the young child to have a wider variety of tasks and help develop the kids knowledge of the world via the questions they can ask.

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Form Development:

When selecting a activity the child will touch the specific button on the touch screen and it will open up on the touch screen but bigger and take up the whole screen to allow the kid to have a bigger screen to interact with.

The point of the interactive touch screen allows the young child to have a variety of activities so they don’t get bored on the car journey.

The face of the bear will move to gesture how it is feeling so every time it is sad its face will go sad this is used to help the young child develop emotional knowledge. When the bear is sad you can ask it why and it will tell you and you can cheer it up by playing games with it like a real person. The face is made up with lots of mini LED lights which can move to show the emotion it wants to show.

When looking at the bear it has its own characteristics but when looking at it its just a well devel-oped interactive bear, so to over come this I have come up with “RAFF” the robot which works in the same way but has its own personality with the way it looks and makes it more of a physical char-acter instead of a teddy bear.

Touch Screen Development: Most touch screens are the same with the same functions so I have been looking to make it either more advanced with a different layout of sim-pler for the kids to understand, bellow are some of the ideas I have came across and developed.

A few basic buttons which show what they do, when selecting a app or set-tings a drop bar will open up and give you a selection of options or a game which shows the instructions of how to play.

The rational idea behind this touch screen is so that the user is able to see a variety of different informa-tion on the home screen such as the time, what time of day it is, what the weather is like and what the chances are of sun/rain.It has the selection buttons like image 1 and works the same way when selecting the button.

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This touch screen is a more developed that image 2 but works the same.

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Sends you to settings which allows you to edit settings such as WI-FI and date and times....EXE

The play button sets the product into play mode where you can talk and play games with it.

Home screen: shows the current weather (found out by the internet and your location) and what time of day it is and the date.

The Keyboard is touch screen, it allows the user to type words in when needed.

3D Renderings of final design This is the final design of the product, it is a robot called RAFF it comes in 3 different colours so it can be attracted to females and males so it attracts a wider audience. The product is a more a friend than a toy, you are able to talk to it like a person and play games with it like a person you are also able to search the internet with it. I have researched into the different software needed, such as the “siri” which allows you to communicate with the product and ask it anything and it will respond back. Raff shows its emotions through its body ges-tures so when happy its arms move up or it claps and its eyes move aswell. Raff is more a companion than anything it is able to keep you

The hand is made from a clear acrylic with ball bearings used in the fingers to allow move-ment, the green strips in the hand are rubber grips which allow you to hang the robot from various objects. Command used: hold the hand by something to grip onto then say “close right hand” and its hand will close and grip around

The touch screen on RAFF is fitted onto its stomach to allow easy access to the screen .

Raff is made out of Strong coloured acrylic and clear acrylic so it is light waight. the moveing parts are made from steel so they dont ware away be-cause of the movement.

3D renderings of RAFF:

Raffs movements are all linked up via ball bearings which allow the limbs to move around like a human body. Each one is wired up to move with a selection of com-mands for example to move the left arm you say move left arm up and Raff will move.

Raffs eyes will move to show different emo-tions and can blink like a human. This is to make the robot seem more realistic and more fun to play with. Raffs Right eye is a camera which allows the user to take picture when you say the command: Take picture. The pic-ture then opened up on the touch screen and you are able to edit the image

Raffs neck works on a roller sys-tem that lets the head roll back and forth as you can see by the Sketch. This allows Raff to move its head down when sad or to the side when thinking ext.

A hydraulic system which pushes up little hydrau-lics which move the neck joint in different ways.

Rollers inside the head to allow a forward and backward motion.

These few images show the toy in its environment. And to show the scale of the robot.Height: 310mmArm Length:250mmLeg length: 230mmWidth: 160mm

How RAFF Works:Raff works how you expect a robot to work, Raffs inner electronic soul can respond to a variety of noises with up to 300 movement patterns including “raising arms in delight, looking down in sadness and kicking his/hers feet in a bad mood this is to show its different emotions this is done by the mo-tor built inside the robot. Raff can replicate a wide range of noise movements such as when there’s a bang it with jump in shock or clapping this lets the child interact with the robot by using noise, when you clap the robot claps.

The software used to talk to the robot is called siri, it is connected to the internet via 3G or WI-FI this allows Raff to search the web for the answers to questions asked by the kid, for example if you ask Raff “where is Balamory” Raff will answer the question after searching through the web and will tell you in a matter of seconds. The Question function will not work when it is not connected to the internet because it cant search the web for informa-tion. To activate this function you press the Play button on Raffs belly and it allows you to play games with it and talk to Raff.

To play games you select the play button and tell Raff what game you want to play such as Guess who and you will start playing guess who, so you ask Raff does the person have a beard? He will respond yes or no, then you keep asking questions till you have guessed. Raff has up to 150 cartoon/ young childrens characters built into its software so you will always be able to play with him, characters such as Mickey mouse, Spider man, teen titans and etc.

To take a picture you hold Raff up so he/she is facing the item or abject and say the command: Take picture and he will take a picture under you say-ing the command, the picture will then show up on his belly and you are able to edit the image by drawing or cutting it on his touch screen.

COMMANDS:Moving arms and legs: move(say what arm or leg) up-down-left-right-backwards-fore wardsTo Play a game: select the Play button on the screen, then say what game you want to play. Play.....................Asking a question: press play then ask the question you want a answer to or just ask how Raff is feeling.Maps: to view maps press the maps button and it will open up a map of where you currently are and you can ask where you are by saying: Where are we?

Interface:

Play mode: this is the image that comes up when select-ing play mode.

When selecting maps it comes up with a satellite map of where you are on the car journey.

When selecting Setting it takes you to the settings menu so you can change them.

Evaluation: After looking at my design from someone http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lg5ox-71HwX1qac8jio1_500.png view I find that it is something different, there isn’t any-thing in the market along the same line, there are plenty of other products with on of the function but none that have a wide variety. The toy is very interactive and will keep the child from boredom because of the amount of things you can do with it, even when the robot runs out of battery you can play with it like a action figure this gives it a second function.

Downsides to the product would be the cost of it because of how advanced it is it will cost about £400 because of the amount of electronics in it. Another downside is that the battery life of the robot will run out quickly about 5-6 hours worth of battery life because of the movements of the robot but since it has the second function of a robot action figure the kid wont be bored and put it down because they can still play with it.

The robot has its own personality because of the way it looks but there is only so much you can do with a robotic form but I have found a way around it to make it more quirky and attractive for young children such as the colours which are bright and catch the eyes of the children. I have gone for 3 different colours to give the robot a wider audience for example red could be for boys, pink for girls and green can be the unisex colour.

After the product was generated I asked a variety of ages of children what they think of the product and if they would use it, my feedback is bellow:Alfie (4 years old)“ I think the toy will be so fun, he can be my new friend”Sammy (6 years)“I like the pink one because of the bright colour, and she can save me from day dreaming”This is only some of the feedback, but most of the children where between the age 4-8 and they all gave a good feedback.

Another downside could be that the product would be to complicated for a young child but I have simplified it so much that a young child and even a adult is able to use it. I have limited the buttons so that there is only 3, this makes it much simpler for the child to use instead of trying to find the rite button. The product is mostly voice communications this makes it so simple that anyone is able to use it, because mostly everyone is able to talk.Raff is able to help develop a childs dialect and pronunciation because the child is talking to it, this gives it a educational use as well and parents would approve of it.

Overall I think that Raff is a very unique toy and would provide endless enjoyment.

Sketch Development: Lesson 1 Sketch Development: Lesson 2

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Sketch Development: Lesson 3Engineer drawings.

An engineering drawing, a type of technical drawing, is used to fully and clearly define requirements for engineered items.Engineering drawing (the activ-ity) produces engineering drawings (the documents). More than just the drawing of pictures, it is also a language, A graphical language that communicates ideas and informa-tion from one mind to another. Most especially, it communicates all needed information from the engineer who designed a part to the workers who will make it.