TITLE
PlaylP
Re-imagine the vinyl experience
TEACHERS
Marco Lurati
ABSTRACT
A brand new product that mixes past and present, relive the vinyl experience with your favorite playlist, constantly updated to suit your tastes.
INTERFACE AND INTERACTION MODALITY
The user can interact with the object by simply inserting a disc with integrated NFC.
The smartphone contained into the product is able to read the information included within the NFC tag, the phone will then be directed to the playlist preloaded on the disc. Once it has been successfully read, the music will start playing and the user will be able to navigate through the playlist using three physical buttons: back, play/pause and forward.
USER EXPERIENCE
The main interaction between the user and the product is very simple, only two easy interactions are required to start enjoying the object: inserting the disc and closing the support mechanism. After that, the user can interact with the product using three buttons to navigate through the playlist. In order to change the playlist, it will be necessary to open the support mechanism again and repeat the main interaction.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT
The object can be used in any context and situation, but it certainly finds its greatest application in a home environment where the user wants to enjoy some music in total relax.
The main developments of the object could be: to develop the digital component in order to delete the smartphone and then use a more customisable platform, this would force us to add an important electronic component that could be contained within the base of the product, the second improvement that could be made to the product is to make the body more rigid using the same materials or changing a part, a further improvement could be to automate through a button mechanism in order to make it easier and faster interaction with the user.
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE FABRICATION PROCESS
The creation of the object started with the Fusion 360 design of all the components of the object. Then we extrapolated the mechanism and started to work on it by performing numerous tests to find the correct shape and the most linear movement possible. After that we worked on locking the axes of freedom of the mechanism going to lock two of them in order to allow through the rotation of the outer ring a linear movement in a single axis. After developing a working mechanism we developed the wheel useful to the user to control the mechanism and the connection between the two rings. For the connection we used a GT2 belt with a width of 6mm and a variable length. After finishing the tests on the mechanism, we turned our attention to the design of our object, so we made all the components necessary to produce the product. The object consists of 3D printed parts, PMMA components and other wooden parts. For the former, we used the Prusa i3 mk3 fdm 3D printer, for the PMMA and wooden components we used the Lux Guyer laser cutter, and for the 18 mm thick wooden centre piece we used the SHOPBOT CNC machine. Special attention should be given to the three physical buttons that control the smartphone, which were 3D printed with a special ProtoPlant conductive filament, allowing us to control the touchscreen with a physical object. After creating all the pieces, we assembled them using M4 flat head screws, and for the phone cover we used M2 wood screws and magnets to make it easy to join the two pieces. To make the disc, we used the laser cutter to cut a piece of PMMA and then cut the shapes needed to cover the NFC tag and colour the back of the disc with the Roland GS-24 vinyl cutter. We then created the covers with Adobe Illustrator and printed them using a plotter.