The Zoeprojectoscope is a mechanical toy designed to teach kids the main concepts of frame-by-frame animation.¬†Animation is a fascinating concept, especially for kids who watch a lot of it. It’s always exciting to understand how the shows they watch are made.
How it works
- Each frame is a piece of acetate which is drawn on.
- The acetate is sandwiched between two clear pieces of acrylic and placed in the wheel, which holds slots for 12 frames.
- To animate the drawings, the user turns the crank, which makes the wheel turn, and places the frames in front of the optics in the right order.
- A light shines through each frame at the right moment, powered using the energy generated by turning the crank.
- A system of gears attached to the crank spin a motor at high speed, generating enough electricity to power a set of LEDs.
- A contact switch is positioned in front of the wheel so that the light is only turned on when each frame is perfectly aligned with the optics. This simulates the shutter from a real projector.
Next Steps
- Fix the optics to make the projection work
- Add legs on the side to make the production surface usable
- Make the whole thing lighter by using a thinner wheel
- Add a base to increase stability
View the PDF
After presenting my zoetrope toy idea to class last Tuesday, I realized that I had completely forgot to add a lens to the design. A lens would be necessary for the projection, so that the image on the wall is bigger than 2″ wide. I ran some quick tests today to see what sort of setup is possible.
I had many lenses to try: an acrylic half-sphere from Canal Plastics and a bunch of lenses Matt pulled off a projector. 
 
 
I made a tube out of sheet metal and placed a piece of acetate with a drawing on it between two pieces of acrylic at one end. I attached a super-bright LED to the end of a wooden stick, which I put in the tube from the other end. Using the stick, I could move the light back and forth to see what  distance would work best. 
 
 
 
 
Only one lens worked properly, but my whole setup was a bit too loose to calculate any distances. I’ll have to build a second prototype where the lens, drawing, and light are all mobile to get more concrete results.
 
Published on
February 8, 2009 in
ITP.
Tags: toys.
My idea for the toy design workshop is to build a zoetrope/projector that will teach kids the main concept of animation. Here is a video demo of a zoetrope in action, which explains how it works better than I can.
The main difference between this new zoetrope and the traditional kind is that it will project the frames on a wall instead of having to look through slits to see the motion. This will be done very simply by using a fixed light source in the center pointing out, and having only the outside part of the zoetrope spinning. The light source will flicker on and off like a traditional projector using physical switches installed on the spinning platform.
Instead of the images being drawn on paper, they will be drawn on pieces of transparent acrylic. This will allow the light to shine through and project the image on a wall. The frames will be drawn using whiteboard markers so that they can be wiped off and new animations can be created indefinitely.
The zoetrope will be spun using a crank, and the speed of the animation will be controlled by the person using it. The light source will use a battery that recharges itself as the zoetrope spins, so no external power supply will be necessary.
Published on
January 31, 2009 in
ITP.
Tags: toys.
For our first toy design assignment, we built a magnetic drawing toy.
A sheet of paper is held down on top of a small table and can then be drawn on using little figurines. Each figurine holds a pen facing down, so moving it across the surface will draw strokes along its path. The figurines have a magnet on the underside, so they are controlled from under the table using magnetic handles. This makes them appear to move magically across the sheet. The idea was to create a new, fun interface for drawing but also for telling stories.
This project was a collaboration with Liangjie Xia, EJ Lee, and Emeri Yarnoff.
