19. Invention, Intellectual Property and Income¶

Assignment - Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project.

Complete your final project, tracking your progress:
What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?
What’s working? What’s not?
What questions need to be resolved?
What will happen when?
What have you learned?

“This project is open-sourced under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License.”

Why This License?¶

Share Freely, Credit the Creator (BY)
You are free to use and modify my design, but attribution (credit) to the original author (me) is required—a fundamental respect for creators.
Non-Commercial Use (NC)
I want this project to remain focused on technical exchange and creative fun. Unauthorized commercial exploitation is prohibited to prevent misuse.
Keep the Spirit Alive (SA)
If you create derivative works based on this project, you must open-source them under the same license, ensuring collaborative goodwill continues.

My Motivation¶

This project was inspired by my love for Ne Zha (the movie) and Arduino maker culture. While the character design is copyrighted, the technical implementation and innovations can be open.
I chose open-source to encourage collaboration: whether improving code, upgrading hardware, or brainstorming wild design tweaks. Tinkering together is where the real fun begins!
If you like this project, feel free to share your remixed versions!
For educational or exhibition use (non-commercial), let me know—I’d love to see what you create!

Movie Copyright Disclaimer:¶

“The character design of Ne Zha belongs to the original filmmakers. Only the technical implementation is open-sourced; do not use this for commercial derivatives.”

I will include all the work I did in my Fabacademy site:¶

Design files
Electronics and code
Assembly instructions

Final Project Progress Tracking¶

1.Tasks Completed vs. Remaining¶

✅Completed Tasks

3D structural design and manufacturing.
PCB design and milling - customized PCB design and manufacturing.
PCB testing and programming - RGB and MP3 can run.
Sensor testing - buttons, RGB, MP3 can be used.

📌Remaining Tasks:

Laser cutting structure manufacturing.
Final program design and testing.
Design a spherical structure at the top of the button to make it look like a bulge on the item (face).
Find a very thin material to make RGB lighting softer.
Shorten the wires to make the internal wiring of the project more neat.

2.What’s Working? What’s Not?¶

✔ Working:

The size of the 3D printed structure and laser cut wooden board is suitable,
The PCB functions well.
The buttons, RGB, and MP3 music modules work very well.
The buttons and RGB can be combined into a whole.

❌ Not Working

4 Ω 3W speaker can play sound, but the sound is a bit low. Perhaps replace it with an 8 Ω 2W speaker.
There is no start button to launch the game. This can be solved through programming, but it would be better to add another button. This might be further improved in the future.

3.What question need to Resolve¶

The entire project’s program design enables the interaction between lights, music and buttons.
I plan to complete this problem from June 4th to 8th.

4.Next Steps:¶

Design and test the final complete program.
Optimize the top laser cut lid.
If I had more time, I would like to replace one RGB with three RGB and design more interesting lighting animation effects.

5.Key Lessons Learned¶

Although this is a prototype, try to make it as close as possible to the actual product being used. Both the appearance and structure should be as beautiful and sturdy as possible.
Focus on achievable solutions at present. Don’t set your goals too high. If there are more interesting but complex plans, treat them as non urgent and deal with them later.
In terms of project time management, it is important to prioritize and deal with important and urgent matters first. Some urgent and simple things can easily distract people’s energy, which is also an important reason for project delays.
A good teacher is half the battle. My mentor and friend Saverio has given me a great deal of professional, patient guidance over the past six months, enabling me to quickly acquire new knowledge. Words cannot express my gratitude. I hope we can continue to work together in the future. I also want to pass on this spirit of professionalism, efficiency, patience and selflessness to my students.