The starting object was a cd container by Muji made of semi-transparent polypropylene.
The shape was so smooth: a cube with rounded edges: quite elastic but solid, feels warm and pleasant to the touch, looks so light and ethereal thanks to the light-refractive material it is made of.
The internal structure is made of heavy white paper (600 gr.) and polystyrene, while all is kept together by heavy duty modeling glue, pins and white textile tape. Finally the structure is very solid, but also elastic, due to the polystyrene which absorbs all the shocks and vibrations that can ruin the fragile internal circuits.
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We put all the electronic components inside a polystyrene protection and placed it on the back side of the device on the opposite side to the hole.
The electronic part is composed of:
- an Arduino microcontroller board;
- a little board with the electric circuit which detects the blow through a microphone (a small amplifier);
- six rgb BlinkM LEDs, each with an internal microcontroller;
- an array of twelve white LEDs that light the shape of the dandelion on the front panel.
The very first prototype, before the adoption of the dandelion metaphor, had a different interaction model. At that time we were experimenting with a “treasure chest” metaphor that was soon abandoned; but goal of getting a visual feedback generated in real time from RSS feeds was clear.
Blinky is designed to be used between two people at a time. Each device represents a person and can be personalized with colors and drawings by the owner. Each person can have any number of devices, as many as his friends. The Blinky devices can be put on a library or similar structure, representing a person’s “friendships map”.
In the first stages of design to see if lots of devices could look good together, we made some renderings. At that stage we were trying to keep the “door” concept from the first prototype, with a semi-trasparent front panel: this solution was abandoned to achieve a more distinctive desing and easier affordance.
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