“Happy Birthday Cake” development procedure

1. Design a laser cutting plan and calculate how many Plexiglas plates are needed.
2. Order Plexiglas and other materials.
3. Submit a cutting plan and the Plexiglas to the laser-cutting center.
4. Assemble the Plexiglas pieces.
5. Solder LEDs and wires, and attach them inside of the assembled Plexiglas pieces.
6. Run the program on Arduino and connect all of the pieces together.
7. Test the project with children during second week of April.

upcomming schedule for toy design classs

• We have a confirmed visit and presentation from Laura Allen of Vision Education on March 8
• We have a tentative scheduling of a classfull of 8 year olds coming to ITP on Friday April 13th for toy testing
• We are going out to visit Fisher Price on Friday March 23

Happy Birthday Project

Background
Kids enjoy birthday parties because they become the center of attention, get lots of presents and receive applause when they blow out the candles on their cake. So, they want to continuously relive the birthday situation when they are playing. Fisher Price has a birthday party toy based on “Dora the Explorer” but the toy is simple, small and too focused on serving pieces of cake to other people. The most exciting moment of the birthday party is blowing out the candles and receiving applause and presents. For this reason, the project “Happy Birthday” will allow kids to enjoy that exciting moment over and over again.

Goal/ Project concept
The concept of the project “Happy Birthday” is that the child will enjoy reenacting a birthday party by assembling many pieces of cake blocks. The 3 dimensional cake blocks will help the child to develop sense of structure and their power of reasoning. Also, the child learns about the process of building blocks by seeing and listening to different feedbacks when the child completes each level.

User Experience
This block toy consists of many pieces of a 2 layer cake as well as many small candles and one big candle for the center of the cake. There are also ornaments for decorating this birthday cake. When a child completes assembling these blocks, the child can light the LED candles and listen to the Happy Birthday song. When the child blows out a candle, the LEDs are turned off and the child listens to a celebratory message that includes applause sounds. The child can play over and over again.

Presentaion file URL:
http://itp.nyu.edu/~jsl398/birthday/birthday_pt_02152007.html

Toy Design Idea

How my child like to blow out a candle on birthday cake?


Idea 1 : Happy Birthday Block
This block toy consists of many pieces of a 2 layers cake and lots of small candles and one big candle. There are also ornaments for decorating of this birthday cake. When a child completes assembly these blocks, the child can light the LED candles and listen birthday song. When the child blows out a candle, the LEDs are turned off and the child listens a cerebrating message with applause sound. The child can play over and over again.


prototype photos on Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jisunlee/sets/72157594514464630/

prototype code and movies :
http://sun-livingart.blogspot.com/


Idea 2 : Sel-Ca (Self-Camera)
This toy is for the child who is interested in looking at him or herself in a mirror and/or taking pictures. When the child pushes the shoot button on the toy, the picture will be taken and at the same time it will be saved on the toy to review later by using the “previous” and “next” browsing buttons on the toy. Also, it can be sent to parent's cell phone and flickr site. The pictures can be printed out on sticker papers by connecting to a printer at home.

New Toy - Breezy Singers

Takara's Breezy Singers
Official Website
http://www.takara-usa.com/breezy/content.html
Realistic sounds and movement with motion-activated photosensor
$15 at F.A.O. Schwarz





Schleich's Natural Set
On-line shopping mall catalog
http://www.toysnyc.com/home.php?cat=98
Box set $13 at F.A.O. Schwarz

observation analysis

observation in Children's Museum in Manhattan

block party - 2 years old girl


block party - 2 years old girl


block party - 4 years old girl



other videos :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3V7ggBgRw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9i2uOVgRrQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFBHRUv-Ss0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeIv_YJ9wgk

pictures on flickr :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jisunlee/sets/72157594511885389/

Happy Birthday Blocks mockups

Amplification idea

Screen based big Kaleidoscope
Make a huge kaleidoscope using a computer and a LCD screen. The toy provides controls of the kaleidoscope and takes pictures using camera. This toy also allows user save and print the scene of kaleidoscope.

The giant size of birthday cake block toy
This block toy consists of many pieces of a 3 layers cake and lots of candles. There are also ornaments for decorating of this birthday cake. When a child completes assembly these blocks, the child can light the LED candles and listen birthday song. When the child blow out a candle, the LEDs are turned off.

Aero Ship miniature
The mini aero ship flies via a giant size of a helium balloon. The body should be constructed with light material and a fan is controlled with wireless transmitter.

Wing of firefly
Child can wear two wings on each arms and if child flutters more and more, the lights on wings will become brighter. The interactive screen shows the child travels on ground.