2.oob: toy product design (spring 2012)

This was a freshman-year class during which we spent the semester taking a toy from a concept to a working prototype. As a team of five students and two mentors, we went through the major components of the product design process, including brainstorming, sketching, sketch modeling, design aesthetics, and prototyping. ​

The Firefly is a light-up foam football that changes colors in response to spin. Not only is it a blast to play with at night, it also provides intuitive and useful feedback for the aspiring quarterback learning to spiral a football. 

Product features:

• Size and weight is comparable to a normal football
• ​Black urethane foam and clear silicone rubber rings are waterproof and durable
• Imbedded rechargeable battery
• External on/off switch
• USB port allows user to customize light patterns

(Hover over images to see captions, click to enlarge.)

This is a sketch of my original idea, which would have been the size of a baseball

The first looks-like sketch model in which we used fiber-optic cables to project light from a few LEDs inside. We also built a works-like model using an Arduino Nano and accelerometer as proof of concept

Our football was cast from different mixtures of Smooth-On foams and rubbers. The black portion was foam, and the middle rings were translucent rubber. Pictured here is the mold that we used for the middle section of the mock-up. It was CNC milled out of layers of wood

Rough wiring: Or goal during the mock-up phase was to perfect the casting process and experiment to find the optimal foam to use. Thus, the electronics at this point only included batteries, LEDs, and a switch, which had to be directly cast into the foam

We experimented with several different types of foam to achieve the correct density and feel (similar to that of Nerf products), and in the process produced tens of iterations of the football

This is the final version of our mock-up, ready to test

For the final product we used 3d-printed molds, which provided a smooth surface and allowed us to include finer details like the stitching and embossed Firefly lettering

These are the main electronics (Arduino and accelerometer) being prepared for casting. Because we cast everything directly into the foam, we had to make sure that our electronics configuration was perfect the first time. We all became very good at soldering!

This finished version of the center, with a glossy coating applied. The Firefly logo turned out very crisp

Wiring, soldering, and testing the LEDs before permanently joining the foam center to the rubber rings with Bondo

We used hot glue on the exposed wires and LEDs to prevent shorting. Although it looks messy, it did the trick and all of the electronics worked perfectly

We were very happy with our final footballs. They were the correct weight, were durable, and the electronics worked well. We designed it in such a way that the code could be continuously updated and debugged even after final assembly