DESIGN NAME: Hiccup
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Toy collection box
INSPIRATION: Children like playing toys. However, they don't like collecting them. Thus parents often find their kids leaving toys everywhere in the room. We wanted to change children's collecting behaviour through design. Thus we came up with the idea that a collection box would make children happy to put toys in it. Then we started our design process.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: There is an interesting interaction between the users and “Hiccup”: when our target users (children) put a toy into Hiccup, Hiccuo will react immediately with blinking and the sounds of hiccup, which creates more pleasure to children by transforming the traditional way of tidying toys into the process of feeding a pet.
By the evening, a small flower will appear from Hiccup’s head, which is actually a projector lamp. Once the user put enough toys into Hiccup(reach the standard weight), the flower will grow into a higher level,from a seedling to a blooming flower, it will take 7 days to completely grow up, any break in the whole circle will cause the flower to grow back to the last level. Thus, Hiccup create a context that help children both feed pets and also form good habits through these long-term stimulations.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: When our target users (children) put a toy into Hiccup, Hiccuo will react immediately with blinking and the sounds of hiccup, which reates more pleasure to children by transforming the traditional way of collecting toys into the process of feeding a pet.
By the evening, a small flower will appear from Hiccup’s head, which is actually a projector lamp. Once the user put enough toys into Hiccup(reach the standard weight), the flower will grow into a higher level,from a seedling to a blooming flower, it will take 7 days to completely grow up, any break in the whole circle will cause the flower to grow back to the last level. Thus, Hiccup create a context that help children both feed pets and also form good habits through these long-term stimulations.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in March 2015 in China and finished in June 2015 in China, and was in a product launch in Hangzhou, China in 28th, June, 2015.
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Surface treatment: All sharp anchor removed,smooth chamfer and surface prevent children from injured.
The storage box shell is made of food grade plastic, non-toxic and harmless to children, which reach the standard that can be assured of licking. Weight sensors and circuits elements are safely installed insdie the box.
The circuits contain 3 parts. one is the weight sensing part, the second is the instant interaction part 'eye blinking' and the third is the recording and motor part 'flower growing'. When sensing weight income, hiccup will recognize it as children putting in toys. As a result it will 'blink' the led light and give the sound of hiccup. Every night hiccup will compare the weight inside the box with the standard weight, which is recorded as the weight of all the toys that should be inside. If the weight is equal to the standard weight, hiccup will consider it as all the toys have been collected. Then the motor spin. And the projection of the flower 'grows'. Else if the weight is much less than standard weight, the motor will spin back and the flower 'drops'.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Hiccup is 400*400*600mm with our first version. However, in the next development we want to make different sizes to suit different needs.
The circuit is powered by 220v.
TAGS: toy, collection, box, kid
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Children like playing toys. However, they don't like collecting them. Thus parents often find their kids leaving toys everywhere in the room. We wanted to change children's collecting behaviour through design. Thus we came up with the idea that a collection box would make children happy to put toys in it. Then we started our design process.
We first focus on how to combine the idea of 'growth' and 'good behaviour'. Through talks with parents and obseravtions we knew that children were intersted in instant feedback interaction. However, they would soon be bored and turn to others. It meant that if we encouraged children's collection behaviours by just instant interaction, it would do no benefit to long term good habits. We wanted children have some growth in this process. Then we came up with the idea of projection light. What if the projection itself would grow? We got inspiration of traditional revolving shadow lights in China. The projection would change everyday if children collected toys correctly. Thus everyday they would see a new, growing projection. This would continuously give them new feeling of their collection behaviour. With this way children could change their collection behaviour day by day.
CHALLENGE: The most difficult part was how to attract children with a toy collection 'box'. We were adults already thus our idea might not be the children's idea. We brainstormed for many times and fianlly compromise to the idea of a dinasour with a flower tail. We were really nervous in the first time when we did field test of the box to a little girl. Luckily she loved it very much. In this way we successfully caught her heart.
ADDED DATE: 2015-10-28 19:01:22
TEAM MEMBERS (7) : Dufeng Wang, Yicong Lu, Kun Dong, Zhen Qin, Jiachun Du, Sirui Feng and Lingyun Sun
IMAGE CREDITS: Image #1-#5: By group members
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