Singing Shiba

I am creating a musical instrument/toy. Because of the electronic components of the toy, my intended target audience is 3+ age, or general audience who want to acquire it for entertainment. For my smaller audience, I want to introduce them to music, help them explore and learn about music notes and such. My goal is to help kids find interest in learning music and ultimately for them to learn that music is fun. This project could be viewed as an entertaining learning tool in elementary school, a toy/entertainment.

Instruction

Hold the controller, make sure one finger is touching the Shiba’s cute butt (where the ground is) and interact with his nose, ears, paws, or tag to make him sing different notes.

Process

I designed a few shapes of the animal and finally chose the shape of a dog due to the positive responses for its friendly and cuteness from some feedback. Next, I sketched out where each pin would go to which interactive part on the plush. After finalizing the design, cut out the fabrication and hand sewed them while making sure that no wiring were crossing each other. Once the audio testing on Arduino and Processing matched up, I stuffed the fabric shell which I just made with cotton stuffing and bring it to test.

Future Iterations

1. Change simple notes to barks in different ranges instead.

2. Connect with a battery and/or bluetooth to loose the wire component.