An amazing electronic toy

Guest
A friend's kids showed me a toy plastic unicorn they got. I was amazed
how it works. It has an on-off switch, and speaker hole. It takes
batteries on the bottom, via a screw and panel.

Anyhow, Im not sure how it works. The unicorn horn has color changing
LEDs. The speaker makes an assortment of sounds. The head moves and all
four legs makes it walk, turn, and backup.

On one side is a heart shaped push button that makes it talk and move.
However, the part that puzzles me is that touching the plastic body in
different places makes it do different things. For example, touching the
mouth makes it make an eating sound. Touching the neck makes the head
rotate and a whinney sound. Touching the sides of the head makes a
purring like sound.

How the heck does this work? Aside from the heart shaped push button,
most of the other actions are by just touching the hard plastic body in
different spots. Those spots do not have any sort of button or movable
piece. Just contact with the body causes it to respond. I bet I played
with that thing for an hour, locating every spot that responds. The kids
didnt even know about most of them.

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself, just because they are
so cool!
 
On Sunday, October 13, 2019 at 12:41:14 PM UTC+11, tub...@myshop.com wrote:
A friend's kids showed me a toy plastic unicorn they got. I was amazed
how it works. It has an on-off switch, and speaker hole. It takes
batteries on the bottom, via a screw and panel.

Anyhow, Im not sure how it works. The unicorn horn has color changing
LEDs. The speaker makes an assortment of sounds. The head moves and all
four legs makes it walk, turn, and backup.

On one side is a heart shaped push button that makes it talk and move.
However, the part that puzzles me is that touching the plastic body in
different places makes it do different things. For example, touching the
mouth makes it make an eating sound. Touching the neck makes the head
rotate and a whinney sound. Touching the sides of the head makes a
purring like sound.

How the heck does this work? Aside from the heart shaped push button,
most of the other actions are by just touching the hard plastic body in
different spots. Those spots do not have any sort of button or movable
piece. Just contact with the body causes it to respond. I bet I played
with that thing for an hour, locating every spot that responds. The kids
didnt even know about most of them.

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself, just because they are
so cool!
Click to expand...

It's probably got capacitance sensors under the plastic.

Putting a conductive element - like a finger - close to a pair of sensor wires - where "close" is defined in terms of the spacing between the wires - increase the capacitance between the wires.

And AC-excited capacitance bridge can be driven out of balance by the adjacent finger. It sounds complicated, but a microprocessor could handle it without much extra circuitry.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney
 
Randy Day wrote...
In article <9505qetvvtqh84svpufo871e2n078tje95@4ax.com>,
tubeguy@myshop.com says...

[snip]

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself,
just because they are so cool!

I recently picked up a Cypress dev board
(~$20 at Digikey) with pads etched on the PCB.
The default software lights a pad's LED ...
Click to expand...

The movable head and four legs for walking,
turning, and backing up are more impressive.
Hey TubeGuy, do you have a link?


--
Thanks,
- Win
 
In article <9505qetvvtqh84svpufo871e2n078tje95@4ax.com>,
tubeguy@myshop.com says...

[snip]

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself, just because they are
so cool!
Click to expand...

I recently picked up a Cypress dev board
(~$20 at Digikey) with pads etched on the
PCB. The default software lights a
pad's LED every time you run your
finger over it - and the pads are under
1.5mm acrylic.

The selectivity is quite good; they
include a 'slider' of irregularly-shaped
PCB pads less than a millimeter apart,
and the LED's light up one by one as you
slide your finger back and forth.

I recall some flavors of PIC controllers
have capacitive sense modules as well.

IIRC, each pad (think small capacitor)
is fed voltage thru an internal R, and
a timer measures the time to reach a
particular voltage (triggering a
comparator, stopping the timer).
Discharge, rinse, repeat.

Your finger adds capacitance as it
nears the pad. If the timer value rises
significantly from normal values, the
pad is considered 'pressed'.
 
On Sun, 13 Oct 2019 08:44:52 -0700, Winfield Hill wrote:

The movable head and four legs for walking, turning, and backing up are
more impressive.
Hey TubeGuy, do you have a link?
Click to expand...

Try this, it might be what he means:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwD54qaiAzA





--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of
GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.
 
On 10/13/19 1:35 PM, bitrex wrote:
On 10/12/19 9:41 PM, tubeguy@myshop.com wrote:
A friend's kids showed me a toy plastic unicorn they got. I was amazed
how it works. It has an on-off switch, and speaker hole. It takes
batteries on the bottom, via a screw and panel.

Anyhow, Im not sure how it works. The unicorn horn has color changing
LEDs. The speaker makes an assortment of sounds. The head moves and all
four legs makes it walk, turn, and backup.

On one side is a heart shaped push button that makes it talk and move.
However, the part that puzzles me is that touching the plastic body in
different places makes it do different things. For example, touching the
mouth makes it make an eating sound. Touching the neck makes the head
rotate and a whinney sound. Touching the sides of the head makes a
purring like sound.

How the heck does this work? Aside from the heart shaped push button,
most of the other actions are by just touching the hard plastic body in
different spots. Those spots do not have any sort of button or movable
piece. Just contact with the body causes it to respond. I bet I played
with that thing for an hour, locating every spot that responds. The kids
didnt even know about most of them.

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself, just because they are
so cool!


When I was a boy (1980s) I had a teddy bear called Bingo Bear, I believe
one of the first "talking toys" (besides stuff like the Speak & Spell
learning game from Texas Instruments) that was all solid-state. It also
had touch sensors "Rub my belly!" but they were electromechanical and
clunky and tended to wear out. :(

IIRC they sold a couple "expansion packs" for the toy which included a
new outfit plus a user-insertable EEPROM to give the toy new dialog
appropriate to it like e.g. a doctor's outfit and cowboy outfit "Hey,
pardner!"

Wish I knew what happened to it. WHERE IS MY BINGO BEAR??
Click to expand...

Ah here it is: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOORPtHhVhI>

This commercial is sort of creepy, actually...
 
On 10/12/19 9:41 PM, tubeguy@myshop.com wrote:
A friend's kids showed me a toy plastic unicorn they got. I was amazed
how it works. It has an on-off switch, and speaker hole. It takes
batteries on the bottom, via a screw and panel.

Anyhow, Im not sure how it works. The unicorn horn has color changing
LEDs. The speaker makes an assortment of sounds. The head moves and all
four legs makes it walk, turn, and backup.

On one side is a heart shaped push button that makes it talk and move.
However, the part that puzzles me is that touching the plastic body in
different places makes it do different things. For example, touching the
mouth makes it make an eating sound. Touching the neck makes the head
rotate and a whinney sound. Touching the sides of the head makes a
purring like sound.

How the heck does this work? Aside from the heart shaped push button,
most of the other actions are by just touching the hard plastic body in
different spots. Those spots do not have any sort of button or movable
piece. Just contact with the body causes it to respond. I bet I played
with that thing for an hour, locating every spot that responds. The kids
didnt even know about most of them.

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself, just because they are
so cool!
Click to expand...

When I was a boy (1980s) I had a teddy bear called Bingo Bear, I believe
one of the first "talking toys" (besides stuff like the Speak & Spell
learning game from Texas Instruments) that was all solid-state. It also
had touch sensors "Rub my belly!" but they were electromechanical and
clunky and tended to wear out. :(

IIRC they sold a couple "expansion packs" for the toy which included a
new outfit plus a user-insertable EEPROM to give the toy new dialog
appropriate to it like e.g. a doctor's outfit and cowboy outfit "Hey,
pardner!"

Wish I knew what happened to it. WHERE IS MY BINGO BEAR??
 
On 2019/10/13 9:35 a.m., Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Sun, 13 Oct 2019 08:44:52 -0700, Winfield Hill wrote:

The movable head and four legs for walking, turning, and backing up are
more impressive.
Hey TubeGuy, do you have a link?

Try this, it might be what he means:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwD54qaiAzA
Click to expand...

$69USD retail...

John :-#)#
 
On 10/13/2019 11:44 AM, Winfield Hill wrote:
Randy Day wrote...

In article <9505qetvvtqh84svpufo871e2n078tje95@4ax.com>,
tubeguy@myshop.com says...

[snip]

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself,
just because they are so cool!

I recently picked up a Cypress dev board
(~$20 at Digikey) with pads etched on the PCB.
The default software lights a pad's LED ...

The movable head and four legs for walking,
turning, and backing up are more impressive.
Hey TubeGuy, do you have a link?
Click to expand...

It might be this:
https://www.target.com/p/little-live-butterbow-dancing-unicorn/-/A-76152074?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&CPNG=PLA_Toys%2BShopping_Local&adgroup=SC_Toys&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1248099&ds_rl=1246978&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqM-xs8Cd5QIVGWKGCh3TbAq5EAYYAyABEgK9I_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Ed
 
On Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 7:41:14 PM UTC-6, tub...@myshop.com wrote:
A friend's kids showed me a toy plastic unicorn they got. I was amazed
how it works. It has an on-off switch, and speaker hole. It takes
batteries on the bottom, via a screw and panel.

Anyhow, Im not sure how it works. The unicorn horn has color changing
LEDs. The speaker makes an assortment of sounds. The head moves and all
four legs makes it walk, turn, and backup.

On one side is a heart shaped push button that makes it talk and move.
However, the part that puzzles me is that touching the plastic body in
different places makes it do different things. For example, touching the
mouth makes it make an eating sound. Touching the neck makes the head
rotate and a whinney sound. Touching the sides of the head makes a
purring like sound.

How the heck does this work? Aside from the heart shaped push button,
most of the other actions are by just touching the hard plastic body in
different spots. Those spots do not have any sort of button or movable
piece. Just contact with the body causes it to respond. I bet I played
with that thing for an hour, locating every spot that responds. The kids
didnt even know about most of them.

So how does this work? I sure cant figure out how......

Heck, I may want to get one of these for myself, just because they are
so cool!
Click to expand...

I don't make toys, but do use this technique in one of our products. Atmel (now Microchip) makes a very easy to use line of touch sensors. I use the AT42QT line of chips:
ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-9570-AT42-QTouch-BSW-AT42QT1110-Automotive_Datasheet.pdf

These are under $2 US, even the 11-channel ones.

These work even through thick plastic (I use them through up to 4mm thick polyurethane). They work even better through glass. The user can even wear rubber gloves and still reliably actuate the controls just by touching.
 
On Tue, 15 Oct 2019 08:01:58 -0700, DemonicTubes wrote:

These work even through thick plastic (I use them through up to 4mm
thick polyurethane). They work even better through glass. The user can
even wear rubber gloves and still reliably actuate the controls just by
touching.
Click to expand...

Still nothing special functionally, though. We already have voice
activation in many of these toys; the next leap forward will be *thought*
activated functionality. Still down the pike for now, though - at a
marketable price anyway.



--
This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of
GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.
 
On Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 11:09:44 AM UTC+11, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Tue, 15 Oct 2019 08:01:58 -0700, DemonicTubes wrote:

These work even through thick plastic (I use them through up to 4mm
thick polyurethane). They work even better through glass. The user can
even wear rubber gloves and still reliably actuate the controls just by
touching.

Still nothing special functionally, though. We already have voice
activation in many of these toys; the next leap forward will be *thought*
activated functionality. Still down the pike for now, though - at a
marketable price anyway.
Click to expand...

And the people silly enough to want it aren't going to be able to think clearly enough to get it to work.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney
 
On 10/15/19 8:09 PM, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Tue, 15 Oct 2019 08:01:58 -0700, DemonicTubes wrote:

These work even through thick plastic (I use them through up to 4mm
thick polyurethane). They work even better through glass. The user can
even wear rubber gloves and still reliably actuate the controls just by
touching.

Still nothing special functionally, though. We already have voice
activation in many of these toys; the next leap forward will be *thought*
activated functionality. Still down the pike for now, though - at a
marketable price anyway.
Click to expand...

So you'll be sticking with the voice-activation model I suppose lol
 
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