teletubby vivisection part one
or - how i learned to stop worrying and love the elmo.
after getting the stripped screws out of the teletubby's back, i've uncovered the interior which looks like this:
the interior of the teletubby is a combination of electronics and mechanical gears. when the sensor (originally located in the hand of the teletubby) is pushed, it sends a signal to the circuit board which:
a) lights up the image being projected
b) makes an awful sound
a signal is then sent to the motor, which is connected to a very small gear mechanism. this in turn sets off a series of larger gears to slow the movement, and then passes along to the hooks on the bottom which make the legs of the thing move in circles. these gears are also connected to another series of gears that work upwards along the body to turn the spools that contain the film of those lovely babies.
the piece on the side is the light mechanism - it snaps into two sensors, and is easily removed from the casing in case the light needs to be replaced. overall it's pretty simple.
i'll take more pictures of the interior mechanisms tomorrow - i do have most of it mapped out in my journal. the doodles below show the overall schematic layering of how it is all put together. by locating key screws, it was easy to strip the whole thing apart by each specific layer.
by numbering screws and parts schematically i have a pretty good understanding of how this thing all works together. it was dropped on the floor this afternoon, and once we found all the gears that had escaped it was quite easy to put back together. it's worth mentioning that the wires are very tight in the packaging, but most of the mechanisms are not fixed inside the casing, they are set inside holes and can be taken out.
the next step is to solder in additional wire between connections so that i can really pull the thing apart, as the wires are pretty restricted. it should give me a better idea of electronic schemactic.
History:
for my historical research I am starting to look into the history of robotics and automata, especially in folklore and pop culture. i've found references of robots in stories about Hephaestus - "golden servants" were constructed out of gold. there are more references in egyptian mythology and history, and the idea of automata continues steadily though history (even during the dark ages) to current time, including Prague's Golem, the automata in France during Louis IVX's reign, and Mary Shelley's Frakenstein.
what i'm personally most interested in is the relationship of the machine to the human body. in the 1700s, Jacques de Vaucanson made a series of automata that ate, flew, and deficated. he also likened the human body to the machine, and felt that any part of the body could ultimately be replaced by a machine.
i started looking at some references of 'robots' in our pop culture. they are representational in the most unusual ways - would a robot need another of the opposite sex with which to procreate? what would be the purpose? and if not, what is the purpose of recreating a robot in the likeness of ourselves, specifically "female" robots that are complete with curves and breasts?
it's something i will be pursuing much more vigoriously in the next little while. i should be getting some books in soon.
posted by chelsea @ 7:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home