nundroo
From Paper to Prototype
It has been rather quiet on this blog as of late, not without reason mind you. The last six weeks I have been submerged in the world of physical computing, electronics, microcontrollers and soldering. The last course here at IDII was entitled "Strangely Familiar: Unusual Objects for Everyday Life" and followed up by an exhibition at the very stylish AB+ penthouse in Torino, Italia.
Introduction
I teamed up with the talented Nicholas Zambetti, who is both an amazing programmer and designer. So, taking cue from either a telephone, radio, answering machine or alarm clock, students created a series of electronic interactive prototypes that amplify the lost qualities of the physical and tangible world. From a radio which can only be tuned by moving it across a flat surface, to an audio channel system which is always switched on just like a physical chat room, to an alarm clock that turns itself off by squeezing a teddy bear, the variations upon the theme are several. Each project was conceived, developed and prototyped as a fully functioning device.
The Challenge
At the very beginning of the course Nicholas and myself were given a radio/alarm clock (note: an EUR 22,- digital radio/alarm clock, needless to mention we could not wait to use it, or to be more exact: take it apart.) We started thinking about its functionality, design and interaction. We decided to adopt a minimalistic approach, getting rid of superfluous or insignificant functionality, and decided to name it "Quattro".
Quattro is housed in a translucent enclosure without physical buttons nor markings. Its functions depend on its position: orientating it on the side it's a radio, upright (in either direction) it becomes an alarm timer and placed horizontally it's a clock. There are four ways to position the prototype, hence it's name Quattro, meaning four in Italian. As you come nearer to Quattro, it detects your presence and reveals illuminated touch-sensitive controls relevant to its current function. In contrast with the minimalistic styling, a cuddly plush bear is intended for remote operation. Yup, you can use a teddy bear from the comfort of your bed. Functionality includes a snooze function and seeking for radio stations.
Electronics
One of the cool things is that we had an electrical engineer helping us out designing the schematics for our prototype. After a couple of days we received our very own personalized PCB! It is amazing how things get easier when everything is printed on such a board, a big yay hooray for miniaturization and engineering! The building process required a lot of energy and dedication and towards the end we spent a few sleepless nights making sure the object was in working condition for the exhibition.
The building process required a lot of energy and dedication.
The best thing is to see an object produced from A to Z in an environment where users can interact with it. Nothing beats real world testing, no amount of tinkering, thinking, programming, sketching or designing can match that. And, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive!
I think I have never been challenged as much as I have during the last 6 weeks. Coming to IDII I had little to no knowledge about industrial design, electronics, soldering and model making. Yes, it was hard work and long nights, but it was more than worth it. But more important than tools are the people dedicated to their work such as Massimo Banzi, Heather Martin, Yaniv Steiner, Reto Wettach, Dario Buzzini (professors — physical computing), Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino (student — thanks for the 3D models and sewing the bears ass up...) and last but certainly not least Edoardo Brambilla from Milano (workshop — model maker extraordinaire).
More, more, more...
Naturally I could go into much more detail, from concept to execution, but that will have to wait. There is, of course, much more to discuss about soldering (and techniques), electronics (datasheets, schematics and breadboards), programming for microcontrollers (in this case ATmega8535 and ATmega128 chips), prototype building (materials, techniques) and industrial design (3D rendering, exploded views). However, a few things: 1. Do not reverse a 7805 power regulator and feed it 12 volts, things will burn... fast! 2. Always, always, use a multimeter first to verify the connections (solderings) and circuit. 3. Hot glue is your best friend. 4. Do not try to bend the legs of a chip just because you mirrored the socket by accident...
In the News
- Orientation-sensitive clock radio and cuddly bear for snoozing
Near Near Future - Quattro radio alarm clock
Core77 - Quattro Multi-Function Clock
Gizmodo - Alarm-clock changes modes with rotation + teddybear
BoingBoing - Koseklokke
VG Nett — Teknoisme (Norway) - Quattro Multi-Function Clock
Amazon.com: Early Adopters
Discussion is open — there are 
21
reader comments 
add yours
1 
29 January 2005 11:22
What an innovative design! kudos! I know many, including myself, who would desire such a product with the great aesthetics,functionality — all without the fuss of complicated buttons. But let’s not make such products of designs out of reach ($$). We have too much overly-expensive products already!
2 29 January 2005 11:27
That sounds like a damn cool idea! I’d love to hear more about the operation of the thing (like, how do you set the clock?)
3 29 January 2005 13:14
It’s *great* to have you back! Your school rules!
4 29 January 2005 20:18
I can imagine the Teddy bear speaking to you in the morning “…pssst, time to wake up you lazy bastard” very quietly, then louder and louder. Do you have any mpegs of the project to show us ? Very nice work, thanks for taking time to share with us. Do you get some rest at some point ?
5 30 January 2005 01:39
Jesus, this is so incredibly brilliant, you have to find someone who can “mass”-produce this thing. I want one sooooo bad…
6 30 January 2005 03:37
Didier, that is awesome. It’s not only functional and smart: it’s also damn futuristic. Good job, to all of the team. Really, awesome.
7 30 January 2005 13:35
I will buy one, and then hide the teddy…..
The wife can squeeze me. ;-)
Very nice.
8 31 January 2005 15:35
Where’s the line to buy one? What a great idea!
9 31 January 2005 22:13
Some nice work there Didier! I hope you got a chance to have a go at the exhilarating experience that is fault-finding ;)
10 31 January 2005 22:14
Have you thought about instead of a clock tuning to set the time, have it set off of the Atomic Clock radio signal? Then the user only has to choose the time zone and if daylight savings is in effect or not. Just an idea… and should reduce the number of buttons/controls an end-user would have to utilize. RC
11 01 February 2005 18:34
Nick! You Rock! -SC (your ex-boss)
12 01 February 2005 18:52
Brillian idea. However, as an avid fan of sleep, an alarm clock this easy to snooze would result in loss of employment for me. I would love to see a very unusable alarm click that required the user to enter a 10-digit PIN number to disarm.
13 03 February 2005 05:09
Ooh! Love it. But as Josh said, I need an alarm that shocks me when I touch the Snooze button.
14 03 February 2005 23:37
The only downside I can see is that squeezing a teddybear would promote going back to sleep. Maybe you could make squeezing the teddybear turn on the coffeemaker, and make the alarm stay on until the coffee carafe is moved. j/k Great project! Congrats Didier!
15 11 March 2005 00:57
I love this prototype! I can see a demand for it and an earlier comment makes me wonder: does it have to be mass-produced to be successful? Why not make them in lovingly hand-crafted batches, like 10 at a time and give version numbers to each group? You can Paypal them off your site or even Ebay them. With time, I’m sure they’ll be easier to build, you’ll get even better at product design, build a brand and following at the same time, all up sides.
I guess I’m thinking the way a web designer would approach product design - being locked in to a final working design in order to have some factory in Taiwan pump them out is a bit scary. A big part of both the excitement and stress of web development is that you can constantly tweak a creation, it’s a living entity that’s never finished and similarly I can see how you’d see more features and tweaks to add to Quattro over time as you watch even more people use it (like maybe adding tiny icon labels to help show which orientation triggers the respective functionality). It would be interesting to approach the actual production process of more traditional design disciplines with a mentality trained from the newer interactive mediums.
Just my two cents. And give more updates to those of us looking to live vicariously through you! IDII is one of my dream graduate schools.
16 08 October 2005 16:36
17 15 December 2005 12:29
Brillian idea. However, as an avid fan of sleep, an alarm clock this easy to snooze would result in loss of employment for me.
18 27 February 2006 04:58
This is the coolest clock I have ever seen.
Please, please, pretty please…. tell me I will be able to buy this somehow. Any plans concerning sales? dates?
The very Idea is just shockingly impressive, it’s… I meen.. it’s just…WOW
19 08 September 2006 04:11
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29 January 2005
