Notori: Reviving a Worn-out Smartphone by Combining Traditional Wooden Toys with Mobile Apps

Smartphones have been spreading rapidly in our society, and their manufactures also keep improving phone's performances. People now have a strong replacement demand for renewing to a latest phone. Therefore, there is a room for thinking about an old Smartphone that can still be used.

A worn-out electronic device is often called E-waste. Most of E-waste is not equipped with the new function, but the minimum function is still valid in many cases. From this point of view, there are some cases which had been vividly revived E-waste by adding another object to it.

For example, by attaching the bumper made of Sugru - a silicon rubber which can use like a clay - into the stale digital camera, the camera can be strong enough and not break even if the child drops it to the ground. In other instances, ThinkerToys are able to change a disused PC keyboard into intellectual training toys (a musical instrument and a calculator) by combining a cheap electric circuit with a keyboard. And since these worn-out devices are not the user's primary ones, she/he can treat them roughly. That is, these examples show us that combining E-waste and a physical object produce a new and extreme use for children.

The question now arises: How can we revive a worn-out Smartphone? In other words, What kind of physical objects can give a new and unique usage to a dated Smartphone? In order to answer this question, we therefore began to design a series of play kit for children called "Notori" which combines a well-used Smartphone with traditional wooden toys.

Yuichiro Katsumoto
Keio-NUS CUTE Center

Masa Inakage
Keio University