My project focuses on developing educational toys that help kids reduce their screen time by blending the appeal of video games with real-life interaction and depend on self learning by give kids instant feed back.
My project is a game designed to help children form the letters of Arabic words. The child inserts a word card and must then arrange the letters to form that word. If the answer is correct, they receive a response indicating it is correct, and if it is wrong, they receive a response indicating it is incorrect.
What inspired me?
I am an Arabic teacher for early childhood, and every time I attended English classes, I noticed the presence of wonderful and creative educational toys. However, these toys were never made in Egypt, and it made me wonder: why don't we have similar educational toys for the Arabic language?
This question inspired me to take action. I decided to start creating Arabic-language toys—not just ordinary toys, but ones that stimulate creativity and critical thinking in children.
I used Fusion 365 to design my project. The steps will be following:
Finally, I assembled all the components that I had designed.
Flash Cards design:
I used Adobe Illustrator to design the flashcards. There were three types of designs.
3D Print: I need 3D print to only fabricate the brackets.
Software : UltiMaker Cura
Material: PLA white filament
parameters: 20% infill
Profile: .0.4 Coarsa
Time: 1hr.14mins
Laser Cut:
Software: RDWorks
Material: Plywood 3mm
Type of cut: Speed cut and cut.
Time: 15 mins
All parts.
Flash Cards:
Software: Adobe Illustrator
Material: Couche paper 300g.
The Components of my circuit are:
Mini Coin Vibration
RGB LED (I only used green and red)
5V Adapter
Input Components:
Line follower: will detect the pattern of every card and convert it to letters or words.
Switch: ON/OFF the circuit and play a welcome sound.
Output Components:
Buzzer: Gives sound when: Card inserted - Correct or wrong answer responded - game open.
RGB: Gives green light when the game start - red light if the answer wrong - green light if its correct answer.
Mini Vibration Coin: Gives respond according to correct or wrong answer.
Brain: Arduino Uno
Rocker Switch: Plays a welcome sound when turned on.
Line Follower Sensors (4): Each sensor has 3 pins, using a total of 12 Arduino pins (Pins 2-13).
Buzzer: Produces sound for correct or incorrect answers (Pin A0).
Vibration Coin: Vibrates in response to every action (Pin A1).
RGB LED:
Red for wrong answers. Connected to Pins A2.
Green for correct answers. Connected to Pins A3.
Resistors (4 × 330Ω): Regulate power to the vibration coin.
The power source is 5V Adaptor. connected through the vin pin in the Arduino.
Why Adapter 5V?
the working voltage of sensors is 3.3V-5.
I started by defining all the components: the buzzer, vibration motor, RGB LED, and four sensors.
I created an integer to count how many times the tone will play. I also used a boolean and an integer to ensure the sound plays only once when a new card is inserted
I used a void function to call and execute certain functions for playing tones.
In the void setup(), I added the code to play a tone once the switch is turned on. Additionally, both green and red lights will be activated. Then, I defined each component as either an output or an input.
I start the void loop() by creating an integer to store sensor readings. There are 12 readings in total (3 from each of the 4 sensors). I assign a name to each group of 3 sensors as follows:
Letter1 = i1 + j1 + k1
Letter2 = i2 + j2 + k2
Letter3 = i3 + j3 + k3
Word = i4 + j4 + k4
Here is how I assign sensors to Arabic letters and how words are formed from these letters.
After the void loop(), I insert the function retrieval section. This includes a switch-case statement to check whether the answer is correct or incorrect and to play a specific melody based on the response.
My instructor, Yehia, guided me in starting the code. And to gain more information about the main sensor (3-way IR sensor) in my project, I took inspiration from the code of a project in the provided link.
Before assembling all electronic components in the chassis, I tested the electronic circuit with all input and output components. Additionally, I created a sample flashcard, handwritten instead of printed, to test the pattern on the back and verify the size.
After completing the fabrication, I mounted all the electronic circuits onto the chassis.
To avoid confusion, I documented each connected pin for every component, including its wire color and corresponding pin number on the Arduino.
The wire of the vibration coin was too thin to be mounted into any pin. My instructor, Yehia, suggested connecting it using a cut wire pin, which proved to be very useful and made the connection much easier.
The card is facing the sensor within the wooden panel.
The card is directly facing the sensor.
After mounting the sensors on the panel, their readings became very inconsistent. However, when unmounted, they provided the correct readings. Once the sensors were fixed in place, all readings turned inaccurate.
After a lot of trail and errors The solution was to remove the small wooden parts between each sensor, as they were reflecting infrared signals to the receiver, even though the pattern was black. Additionally, to prevent any reflections, I painted the areas facing the sensors on the panel black.
If I had more time, I would add a screen to display the letters and words on the inserted flashcards, making the learning experience more interactive and engaging.
Also add MP3 module to make the project more interactive and engaging for children, enhancing their experience with audio responses.