Sniff

For this prototype I want to go back to two vibration motors. It was considered to not be necessary when building the prototype for the exhibition. It is not necessary for the photo shoot either, I know that, but after writing the article I realize that detailed tactile feedback contributes a lot to the experience of holding Sniff when he sniffs a tag. I also think it is helpful to work with two different qualities of vibration when developing expressional feedback like emotions and behaviours. I have not tried the Lilypad Vibe Boards before, and it looks really nice with no moving parts that can cause problems in the layout. But after mouning one on the inside of the neck of Sniff (where the vibration could be activated when he ’speaks’) I must say it’s not working well for this application. The vibration is far too weak, I have to hold the button pretty close to my skin to feel anything. And in Sniffs’ case the neck is padded with foam.

So I decide to use a motor from a mobile phone, like I’ve done ealier. I decide to cut off a bit of the cover as well, to use as a socket so that the motor can be taped directly to the neopren neck.

The last round of prototypes made for the exhibition at DogA turned out a bit different in the appearance, both because of the darker green colour I used on the plush fabric, but also because of small details in shape and facial expression. This prototype should try to look more like the original Sniff, at least in colours and face. The body is still stretched flat out, not sitting. New colours and other personality expressions in the design can be experimented with in the future, but this prototype should be representative for Sniff as a character in new photo shoots and video captures.

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With this prototype I also pay more attention towards the opening in the chest, where everything from batteries, SD cards and new code via USB has to be exchanged or updated.

This is the new internal structure. For every prototype I build the solutions becomes more and more stable, building on the experiences with earlier prototypes. Now I use neopren as a protective material for the cables and the swan neck, and mount this steadily to the plastic sandwich in the body and in the head. Sniffs neck should now be much more resistent to stress from user tests. We want as much sound as possible, and I choose to try out a quite big speaker this time (a spare part from an old computer, actually). It turns out later that you really can’t hear much difference between this and one that is about 10% of the size, but this is marked with 8 ohm, which is an important detail IF i need to maximize the volume by soldering another amplifier on top of the Wave shield (this I have learned from the Adafruit homepage). It weighs more than earlier speakers I’ve used though, and with all the screws in this version, the prototype turns out to be quite heavy.. I know that weight can give an impression of quality, but I think I will go for smaller speakers next time if the sound quality is the same anyway.

Components that should be fitted in the body shell still gets protection between sandwiched acrylic sheets, just two this time since the Wave shield can be mounted on top of the Arduino. The Arduino board is fastened to the acrylic with screws, and underneath the sandwich I make a battery soultion that I fasten on a neopren piece for isolation and some flexibility.

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With all electronics in one solid piece the head and body shells can just be snapped on and taped together. The speaker is so big I have to make slots in the plastic to fit it into the head. The last picture shows modification plans to fasten the switch that controls the ID-20’s Rx connection in the head shell.

The earlier prototype used an Arduino Mini, placed in the head shell, and the V2 Mp3 player in the sandwich inside the body shell. The new Wave Shield is supposed to sit right on top on an Arduino Duemilanove board, so now they both have to fit into the body shell, plus that there still have to be a battery there. The ideal would be to create new shells that’s shaped out from the new hardware, but since this prototype is primarily built for a video and photo shoot, it just has to actually give some feedback. With some adjustments it is possible to fit the new components in the old shells.

The concepts that were developed for Sniff in the first place was meant to be starting points for playful and social activities. Now it is time for them to be reconsidered and developed further. Some of the concepts are chosen out to be diagrammed with sketches to show the situations they can/should be used in and differentiate one concept version from another. In many cases the feedbacks are of big importance for what the concept is about, and one challenge is to describe this graphically. The process of this work is documented in a pdf file.

Concept Development.pdf

We decide that the V2 mp3 player means too much trouble for the new rounds of prototypes. This is me soldering a Wave Shield from Adafruit Industries. This is the component that Tom Igoe told us about back in our PhysCom workshop, he knows the woman who has developed it, and now it is finally here. We simply cannot resist to try if this works out better than the mp3, at least it should be a lot easier because this is tailor made for Arduino, and there is a lot of experience out there to learn from when encountering trouble of any kind. The step-by-step soldering tutorial is a dream, it’s so thorough you don’t have to know anything about electronics to manage to assemble it. I am very careful though, well aware of that if I make a mistake I’ll probably never find out exactly what. Soldering this type of board is fun, every little hole has a metal ring in it, and the result is that the solder melts down in the right spot beautifully. And when the result is that it works exactly like it is supposed to, I’m almost about to order more kits of different type just for the fun of it.

Sniff has been taken under the wings of research project Touch. The development that led to the prototype that was exhibited at DogA was also a result of cooperation with Einar Martinusen and Timo Arnall, but now this collaboration is formalized. I’m going to work mostly with presentation material (sketches, photos, video, website), but also some prototype development is needed. After trying to photograph Erle and Oskar with the ‘nice looking because it’s without a cord’ model of Sniff I have learned that non-working prototypes just don’t do it when you are dealing with children. Surely they can do as you tell them and hold him like he’s supposed to be used, but without the feedback the blank expression in their faces becomes very clear, even on photos. What was so nice when photo shooting with the prototype when it was working was that you could see that they were listening and experiencing.

Recommended by Onny Eikhaug at Norsk Designråd, Sniff gets to be exhibited the 10th anniversary of Cité du Design in StÈtienne, France. I am well aware of the fact that I really should be present at a gathering like this myself, but when the exhibition dates gets a bit closer neither me or Mina are ready to travel that far. I contact the curator, and she promises to help me arrange everything at the exhibition site. I print large posters on fancy photo paper and send Sniff down with DHL. Norsk Designråd pays for the cargo. The biennale is a huge event, and just before sending the stuff it becomes clear that they want to exhibit Sniff as part of a futuristic appartment, filled with novel technological inclusive design solutions. My posters won’t be presented next to Sniff, as in the original plan. I send him down anyway. Onny, who pays a visit to the biennale for a lecture on the norwegian approach towards inclusive design (where Sniff is mentioned), takes some pictures of the exhibition for me.

Sniff looks a bit sad there, where he sits inside the black shelf. Unfortunately this prototype, the first that was built, is not working anymore. I find out that I cannot send the one that craves his own power station when I’m not going to be there myself. When exhibiting Sniff as a model, and not as a prototype, the posters that explains the concept are really essential. The posters I sent were supposed to be mounted outside of this future scenario appartment, but if they were, they were not easy to spot according to Onny. And maybe they weren’t hung up at all.

DesignER, means DesignIs. This exhibition in Bergen focuses on the diversity within the field of design, and wishes to inquire the meaning of design by asking designers about there thoughts and opinions on design. Einar is chosen as one up-and-coming design sprout, and he recommends Sniff as an example of good design. Very nice of him. We send a non-working prototype for the exhibition, since it would be too big hassle to send the one we used at DogA, when we cannot be present ourselves for the set-up.

The Young Talents award gets publicity on Norways official site in Japan as well : )