Final Project

Talking Toy

After discussing with my instructor, I finalized the idea of creating a talking toy. The inspiration for this project came during a visit to my cousin's home, where I noticed her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter glued to a smartphone and unwilling to part with it. This made me wonder if there could be a toy that would engage her and encourage interaction. While researching, I couldn't find any toys that allowed customization of audio files—they all came preloaded with standard audio, which felt uninspiring.

As I was brainstorming ideas for my Fab Academy final project, I thought, why not create the kind of toy I had been searching for? I believe this would make the perfect gift for her. The toy will include an SD card slot, enabling us to play customized audio files such as stories or music. Additionally, it will have wheels, allowing it to follow the child while playing the audio, making it interactive and engaging.

This toy features LED lights for the eyes, a display for the mouth to mimic lip movements, speakers for audio output, and ultrasonic sensors for measuring distance. It is equipped with four wheels for mobility, a DC power supply for battery charging, and an SD card slot for customizable audio playback.

CAD Design

I made a possible CAD design for my project in week 2 and it probably looks like this.

Voice Input

I tried to add microphone to my project so that I can interact with it using our voice as well. So during my Input devices week I made a board using INMP441 MEMS microphone. Tested and programmed it and it works well.

I included 3 LED's on the board to use it as an equiliser from the input recieved from the microphone. Hopefully it works fine and the video is included here,

Servomotor and Speaker

As it is a talking toy, Speaker is the essential item in it. Also I am trying to impliment a head movement as well as you saw on the above concept video. So during Output devices week I made a board using XiaoESP32S3 to control speaker and Servomotor. As the microcontroller doesn't have I2S suport I needed to add an extra I2S converter IC PT8211 into the circuit.

I successfully control the servomotor but due to some issues with my board I think I can't able to play the audio.

Block Diagram

As mentioned above, my project is a talking toy. So it needed a speaker. Audio is loaded using an SD card. Push buttons are needed for controls. For the head movement servomotors are needed. Microphones are for interacting it with voice and the lip movements are simulated by OLED display. A battery is needed for power power suppy.

Bill Of Materials

These are the possible bill of materials for my project.