Mixed Media, 2018

Project Description

For my first physical computing project, I created an interactive toy called Blinko, a Plinko-style enclosure that lets users drop marbles onto a board of pegs. The wooden pegs route each marble down different paths to the bottom of the board, where it can land in one of three different landing zones. Each landing zone has a switch that will display a different light pattern and musical jingle, based on which landing zone the marble landed in. The center zone is the “jackpot,” with lots of cool light patterns and a triumphant jingle, while the other two zones give off their own light pattern and a sad jingle. Once the marble has rolled back out of the enclosure into the marble-catch, the user can use it to play again.

One of the very first things we did for this project was to come up with graphics that would show off our overall design and user interaction. For user testing, I sketched up some basic graphics that I would later refine with Adobe Illustrator for our final documentation, seen below:

The Process

The project uses two Neopixel strips, two small speakers, three switches, an Arduino Uno microcontroller and lots of wires to make the magic happen. I worked with a partner on this project, and we had a wide range of difficulties to overcome, from laser cutter malfunctions to finding appropriate materials to getting the switches to trigger reliably. I spent a considerable amount of time on Blinko and many a tear was shed in the Blow Things Up lab during its production, but by the end I had learned a ton about working with materials, constructing an enclosure, and getting everything to work together.

Read a detailed description of my process for crafting Blinko here!