TOYS. I like to think in certain aspects I have not allowed myself to grow up, playing with toys being one of those aspects. Toys are one of those things that makes people happy. It can bring out creativity, encourage sharing and positive interactions with others, teach in a more hands-on way. When I heard about this project at the Senior Design meeting Friday of Week 2 I decided I had to jump on the opportunity. However, no one was on the team yet and only one other student and myself had shown interest in it. “I NEED THIS TO HAPPEN,” I thought to myself as I frantically messaged other mechanical students, asked around my classes, and posted a status update on my Facebook (desperate?). Finally, a team was formed! Woohoo!

Oh yes, I should introduce myself. My name is Amihan Amargo and I am the team lead for Project X, a joint effort with Mattel to create a smart toy that bridges the physical and digital world.

My team and I were off to a late start, having our first meeting this past Tuesday of Week 4 after everyone had joined and settled registering for units. We came in with some research about toys and the direction we saw, in particular, technology was taking smart toys. Many diverse toy concepts are out today, not just from big companies like Mattel or Hasbro, but also on Kickstarter. Brennan had found an attachment that you put on your paper airplane that allows you to control its flight with your phone. There were also some robotic toys that allowed kids to learn how to code, taught children how to use small motors or utilize basic engineering principles, and other toys that interacted with the child’s voice or touch for either health or social reasons (think advanced Furby). Terry Wang, our project advisor, conference-called us and gave some direction on how we should tackle this quarter and the rest of the school year with our research in mind.

Something we had to keep in mind was not what we were going to build, but why? Why would we build our toy? Why does/should it bridge the digital with the physical? This past Friday we met up at Java City to discuss our these whys. The general consensus was that we wanted to give children a headstart on learning, preferably in engineering arenas. We also tried to narrow down who we were catering our toy to. With all those ideas in mind we met the next day to discuss our toy ideas.

One giant road bump we all ran into was thinking of a toy that wasn’t already made or basically made. Al added digital aspect to a basic toy was something we all agreed we wanted. We found particular difficulty with the Sphero, a phone-controlled sphere that DOES EVERYTHING YOU WOULD WANT A TOY TO DO, EVER. :,( Although we praise that toy for its design, it is the most extreme example of our our ideas that have already come into fruition (and personally took the time to meme a photo of the sphero, I hope that not too casual for these blogs). We had a few other concepts in mind, like a board game that utilizes an Ipad or smartphone. Although this idea has been incorporated in a few games already, game and character play is something we would be able to make our own. Game/minigame play would allow us to add the education element as well if we still wanted too. We also had another strong idea that has lot of potential, but for privacy sake of our team I will keep it under wraps.

We are still in the process of deciding what toy to pick and differentiating ourselves from what is out there. We definitely need to reach out to others for input (like those in the toy industry already or children to find out what they consider fun). We are also anticipating coding difficulty, but in my opinion, the more challenging the better. How much more rewarding when you overcome your challenges or are least know you did all you could? Anyone can do easy. I think we should dream big and if things have to go as the year progresses then by all means we’ll adjust.

To the start of our team, the future challenges and late nights, the roadblocks and failures, the team support and success. I’m excited. I full-heartedly believe we can make something fantastic.

Amihan Amargo, Smart Toy Project X