HOW FURBY TOY WORKS





All of you must have seen this toy before. It was really popular in the 1980s till 1990s. This owl-toy is known as furby. Today i am going to explain how electric components inside it works as well as what the electirc components are. This is actually a research for the journal in the topic how electronic components are being used in running the toys.




These are pictures of the interior of a Furby toy.



Transistors A transistor is an electronic component used in a circuit to control a large amount of current or voltage using a small amount of voltage or current. It does so by sandwiching one semiconductor between two other semiconductors. The current is transferred across a resistor which has high resistance to electricity.




Electrical components, wirings, camshaft
Furby is mainly made up of gears, camshaft and electrical components. They have a single revisable motor which moves its eyelids, eyes, ears, mouth, and butt. The cams which move the eyes, ears, mouth, etc are all in a single driveshaft. A full rotation of the driveshaft would put it through all combination of motions. The sequence in which the body parts of Furby moves in determined by the position of patterns of the cam.









Example of a random camshaft
Sequences of animated motions of Furby are determined by the degrees rotated either backwards or forward. For example, for Furby to dance, the shaft must be moved back and forth 20 degrees which will move Furby’s butt but not Furby’s eyes or ears. However, for Furby to dance, processes such as eat, sleep and blink must spin through before Furby dances as the positions can only be accessed sequentially or in sequence.



How this works?
As we can see, the cams (of different shape and sizes) are attached to the camshaft. Imagine when the camshaft rotates, the cams of different shape and size too, rotates. This rotation brings the cam up to the highest point and down to the lowest point when a full revolution is made. Notice that the different cams on the shaft have pointed edges pointing at different directions. When the follower is attached above the cam, the rise and fall of the cam will be more obvious. This application is then applied the Furby toy, causing its body parts to move in a pattern or sequentially.











MOTHERBOARD: The central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system. A motherboard allows all the parts of the toy to receive power and communicate with one another.
The motherboard works as the central or primary circuit board in a Furby toy which contains the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices such the sound player of a Furby which enables the toy to produce sound. All these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard’s chipset.

We all know that "design" simply means the "look" of a particular object.The art or profession of using design elements to convey information or to create an effect.

Conveying information- For example, the buttons on your cellphones.




Notice that there are little pictures of phones coloured in green and red. Clicking on the green button simply means to answer an incoming call while the red one means rejecting a call or hanging up after you have finished making a call.

Why red and green.

RED- The colour red dontes emergency or danger. Red is the colour that grabs our attention very much. Stop signs and stop lights are red to get the drivers' attention and alert them to the dangers of the intersection. When this application is applied to cell phones, it simply means to "stop" a call or to "stop" an incoming call.

Green-Green has a totally different meaning to that of red. While red donates an impression of stopping, green on the other hand gives us an impression of "going", the permission to proceed. Green also donates stability and balance and red contrasts green, grabbing attention and awareness. When this application is applied to cellphones, it simply means to "answer" an incoming call.






Not every phone has the red and green button. But, they do have buttons whereby we follow the directions given on screen and punch them accordingly. =)

Let’s look at the design of this wooden clip. It is brown in color with a plastic star on it. The star stands out on this clip.

Q: Why does the star stands out on this clip?

A: There is a vast difference of the properties of both of the materials.
The star is made of plastic while the clip is made of wood. The plastic star is smooth and shiny while the texture of the clip is rough and is dull in color.







Now, let’s take a look at this spectacle case. In my opinion, this spectacle case is indeed well designed in terms of aesthetics.

Q: Why is it well designed in terms of aesthetics?

A: This spectacle case is well designed in terms of its looks because it is brilliantly colored. The colors used are bright and matching.






These postcards have really brilliant designs. These postcards are colorful and unique which attracts our attention












This hand phone pouch has a shape of a cat on it. The cat-like-shape is made of some kind of smooth, shiny and silvery material. In my opinion, this material is really attention grabbing because of its shininess.

The pouch is made of fur and the users using this pouch will feel comfortable when holding on to it.






This is the back view of the hand phone pouch. As we can see, there is the tail of a cat at the back of the hand phone pouch. I think that this hand phone pouch is very innovative. In other words, it is simply creative!






Let us take a look at this can of drink. As we can see, part of the can drink is translucent and the half is transparent. I think this can has got a really unique design. I haven’t seen a can designed this way except for bottles.
















These few pictures are found in my house. There a lots and lots more that could be found in our school, workplace and our home! This shows that designed could be seen almost everywhere!