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Scribble

Scribble 5 2010

In April, a four-member team of A&D undergraduates – Penn Greene, Chris Parker, Alexis Stepanek and Ryan Thurmer – were awarded first place in the Michigan Toy Competition, sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Giddy Up Toys. Their creation, the Scribble, takes the idea of a flip book and turns it into an electronic toy with a sleek design and touch screen components. Users can create digital animations using a plastic tip pen on the screen, or built in camera.

After the Michigan Toy Competition win, the rest of the world started to take notice. In the past few months, the Scribble has been featured on dozens of websites, including CNet, Gizmag and Cool Things, and was discussed on the Wall Street Journal’s This Morning podcast on May 26th.

The Scribble is a touch screen animation device that lets users create drawn, or stop motion animations with a pen and built-in camera. There are several modes that help create unlimited animations. When first turned on, the toy is in draw mode, allowing the user to either take a picture or draw the first frame. Pressing the rectilinear button saves the frame, onion skins the drawing and allows the user to draw the next frame. When the user is finished with their animation, they press the green triangular button and watch their drawings come to life. If there is a flaw in the animation, or if the user would like to add a section, they may enter review mode by pressing the yellow triangle, allowing them to flip through the animation, frame by frame and make adjustments. 

In addition to drawn animations, it also allows users to create stop-motion animations with the built in camera. The user can even then draw/​animate on top of each image — really opening up the possibilities for what can be created on this seemingly simple device. 

The group of A&D students came up with the idea for the Scribble after meeting with a focus group of eleven 3rd Grade students about their top picks for Christmas and favorite activities.

Many wanted interactive touch-screen devices such as iPods or Nintendo DSes. Using this information, we reflected on vivid memories of creating flip books as children. We knew we wanted to recreate those experiences and memories, but in a more environmentally friendly and technological way, without the use of paper.
- Ryan Thurmer, CNET: Scribble’ drawing pad animates your doodles

Although the Scribble is still in a prototype stage, the group is investigating opportunities for mass production and distribution — so that group of 3rd graders might be able to put a Scribble on the top of next year’s Christmas list.