Made from a pattern that can be printed at home, low-cost hobby-store servos, and an Intel Galileo development board. Worry birds monitor “worries” on Twitter (words or trends that the builder sets.) The bird’s behavior changes to reflect the level of “worry” so you know if you should relax or get online!
For the past year, I’ve worked on technology projects to encourage novices to engage with programming and physical computing. Low-cost microcontrollers create a new realm of development and product design opportunities that can empower anyone, if they are willing to take the first step.
Sometimes engagement takes the form of a software tool for novices, and sometimes it’s a project that is designed to catch attention, and get novices excited to take that first step into electronics and prototyping.
Worry Birds are the second type: They are designed to capture attention, and get people thinking about the possibilities of combining physical form, character and movement with online data. Worry birds are easily recreated from an online pattern and home printer. The movement is made possible by servos and simple sensors that allow the birds to “see.” Worry birds also monitor “worries” on Twitter through simple code that’s easy to modify. The program can be customized to to make each bird “worry” about whatever it’s maker wants.
This design was guided by two opposing forces, maximize visual complexity and expressive behavior, while making the actual pattern and construction process as simple and low-cost as possible. The movement is intended to capture attention and engage the imagination.
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