5 - "Prototyping" : Ideas on Hardware

We have thought of many different peripheral(hardware) possibilities so far, here is a list of the best ones that we think should be implemented:

• Headphone jack:
  Sometimes the console might become too noisy and we thought that a headphone-jack could be handy. So that they can simply use a headphone.


• TV-output:
  It would be good if parents(or kids) could have a larger screen sometimes, especially for the gallery.


• Remote Control(for parents):
  This could be well useful for the times when kids are just making too much noise and parents want to switch the console off or turn the sound down...


• A little printer (which could be connected to the device through the camera slot, this obviously means the camera would have to be ejected.)


• Hardware protector(IBM Thinkpad - Active Protection System):
  This is something that will be needed for such device, because it is likely that the console gets droped all the time and we obviously don't want the hard drive to be damaged. The Active Protection System on IBM Thinkpads is not exactly what we need though, as that is designed for Windows XP or 2000.


• Microphone:
  We could have a built-in microphone so that the child could actually sing along with the music/nursery rhyme that is being played or read along with a story.

We also thought of a different button which could take the child(user) back to the main screen(Home). By having this button we could design the other 6 buttons in the way that they could be concealed inside the product, so basically by pressing the Home button all other 6 buttons would pop-up and when a program is running or the toy is switched off, other buttons could go down inside(hidden).