Tittylator

FALL 2020
PHYSICAL COMPUTING // FABRICATION // INTERACTION DESIGN

TITTYLATOR

The Tittylator is a sensual object that promotes exploration, playfulness, and confidence in feminine sensuality and sexuality. The goal is to encourage women to casually get in touch with their bodies and facilitate more open conversations about their sensual consciousness, with the aim of boosting confidence, intimacy, and love of self.

The form of the Tittylator’s is derived from its multi-functions, but also visually ratifies juxtaposition. The light, fluffy top is balanced out by the heavy, spiky dripping bottom. The textures of the two sides are drastically different, yet they compliment each other in tactility. The handle in the middle is soft and squishable, and acts as the bridge between the two opposing ends.

The Tittylator functions in three different ways, all activated by squeezing the soft handle.

1. Emits aphrodisiac scents, like jasmine

2. Fans feathers

3. Vibrates the soft, spiky bottom

The materials that went into creating the Tittylator includes:

1. Arduino microcontroller

2. Pressure sensor

3. Dust blower

4. Custom 3D-printed magnetic actuator

5. Vibrating motors

6. Dust blower

7. Silicone tube

8. Flexible 3D-printed shell

Women’s sexuality has historically been repressed for centuries, making us feel ashamed of our bodies and depriving us of our pleasure systems. The Tittylator sets out motivate women to feel their different senses without shame, and ultimately inspire shameless embracement of their sensuality and sexuality.

IDEATION

I started the project knowing that I wanted focus on the topic of female sexuality and sexual confidence, with the goal of encouraging open dialogue and appreciation for female sexual exploration, desires, and confidence. I also knew I wanted to create something physical and interactive, since tactility is such a big part of sexual pleasure. I wanted this project to give the audience a sense of discovery, fantasy, sensual enhancements and playfulness.

I started drafting out different ideas and thoughts in a mind map and created rough mood boards.

I sketched out an interactive object that is tactile, playful and intimate, and uses juxtaposition as a device of communication to the audience. Inspired by the feathers and and spikes shown in my mood boards, I wanted my object to act as a sculpture that allows users to explore their own senses, from touch to smell. The object is not meant to look promiscuous or provocative, but rather alluring and exquisite.

PROTOTYPING

LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

I explored different materials, forms and scales for the Tittylator. I wanted the object to function both as a hand-held device and an indoor sculpture. The scope for this prototype included:

• What’s the size?

• How does it feel?

I collected materials from the junk shelf at ITP to play with, including foam, sponge, feathers, spiky stress balls and clay to mould my prototype.

For the handle, I used sponge to emulate some sort of soft handle that is squeezable. I tested the handle’s thickness with multiple female friends to make sure it feels comfortable in their hands. I created the feather end with a movable mechanism and moulded the spiky end with clay to visualize the object’s entire scale and provide a sense of how the end product would could function. Feedback from friends (and potential users) at ITP at the time was that the object felt too big to be used casually. The feathers and their fanning motion worked well for most testers.

Through this process, I learned that the form of this object is very important, as well as size. I need to be able to make the object compact enough for users to pick up comfortably, while still providing enough handle room for comfort. This prototype also made me look into silicone or some sort of light, flexible material for the final product, as sponge and clay turned out to be too heavy for users’ liking.

MEDIUM-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

The scope of my medium fidelity prototype was to figure out how to get my Tittylator’s mechanics working, which included the fanning of the feathers and vibration of the spiky base, all activated by squeezing the handle of the device.

The back-and-forth movement of the feathers seemed simple to achieve at first, but I quickly realized I underestimated the difficulty of getting that motion going. I kind of thought I would just find a motor that was small enough and would do exactly what I wanted it to do, but obviously I was wrong.

For my first try, I devised a mechanism used the arms of a servo motor to push and pull a metal wire. The wire had a loop at the top, and would then turn the other metal wire that that has a dip and sitting perpendicularly. That horizontal arm would then have to be attached to some sort of enclosure so it has a base to sit on.

Though this worked put fine, the servo was too loud and distracting, and the metal wire wouldn’t work inside the handle that is supposed to be squeezed by the user.

For the second trial at this fanning mechanic, I found a tutorial to create a magnetic actuator using 3D-printed parts and copper wires. I adjusted the parts in these files to match the size of the magnets I had on hand, and followed this tutorial for Arduino code and wiring.

After hours of tinkering, the final, functional result was so satisfying!

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

The scope of my high-fidelity prototype was to put all my inputs and outputs together in order to have a functioning object for user testing. With the fanning mechanic working, I was able to sketch out the rest of the components I needed inside of my Tittylator. I initially thought of using force sensitive resistors as my input sensor, but I was advised to use a pressure sensor connected to a small dust blower instead for more accurate sensing.

I ordered pink ostrich feathers from Etsy to prepare for the feathery fan top of the Tittylator. I cut up some foam, stuck a few feathers into it, and hot glued the foam onto the actuator arm. I then found that the magnetic force on my actuator isn’t strong enough to move the weight of all the feathers I initially wanted. Even after reducing the number of feathers, the movement isn’t as strong as I wanted it to be. I kept this form for my playtest due to time constraints, and planned to customize a bigger, stronger actuator for the final product.

I bought spiky, soft stress balls when I was researching different textures in the beginning of this project. I cut a little hole into one of the balls and put the vibrating motor in there. Though not exactly like how the actual product would turn out to be, it was a good substitute for quick user testing.

As for scent, I wanted to test out a few different scents during this playtest, but was not able to find all the scents I was looking for in time (jasmine, rose, sandalwood, vanilla). I also realized that aroma oils are so expensive! I ended up getting just one scent, sandalwood, as I thought it was neutral and relaxing. I dripped a few drops onto the feathers so that it disperses with the fanning motion.

Now it was time to put everything together, which sounded like an easy task. Basic input to outputs, right? When I plugged everything to my breadboard and put a threshold on my pressure sensor reader, I found that the vibrator and actuator would only work when the dust blower was being pressed. This wasn’t the interaction I wanted. I didn’t want the user to have to strain their hand trying to keeping their press to get the outputs. I decided that I want the outputs to continue operating for a few seconds after the pressure drops below the threshold, which turned out to be a lot more complex than I had expected.

My instructor Pedro helped walk me through the different states I had to set in my Arduino code, for each input, output, and timer. I learned to use the millis() function in Arduino to successfully get my vibrator and actuator (named “fan” in my code, as the actuator is the mechanism for my feather fan) to stay on for a few seconds.

PLAYTESTING

Since I didn’t have the actual enclosure of the Tittylator ready for this playtest, I made a short Playtest Presentation to give the playtesters an idea of what the final product is supposed to look like, and lay out the input and outputs for them to interact with separately.

I set up a small tripod for my iPhone on the table to record the playtesters and their interactions (with prior consent from each person). I typed up a list of questions I wanted the playtesters to verbally answer during the playtest.

I was able to get feedbacks from eight different women who were in my target audience group. I disinfected the playtest area in between playtesters and required masks to make sure each person feels like the experience was sanitary enough. Ideally I would have liked for them to be able to use it on their faces, as a few of them mentioned the desire to do so if it were a possibility. Each person spent roughly five minutes alone in the playtest room.

FEEDBACK SUMMARY

It turned out that every woman had very varying preferences when it came to what is pleasurable to them. Some preferred stronger vibrations, some preferred less. Some really enjoyed the rendered visuals, some wanted something more minimal. My takeaway from the playtest was that I will not be able to satisfy every woman’s desires with a static set of interactions; I will need to give them options and allow for customizations.

After this playtest, I wasn’t able to to provide more options and customizations for the Tittylator 1.0 due to time constraints, but this research is vital for my future developments in creating pleasure objects for women.

FINAL PRODUCTION

My initial plan was to cast silicone to create the outer shell of the Tittylator. Silicone has all of the properties I need: soft, flexible, and able to be casted in organic, curvaceous forms. But after learning about the process from a few ITP residents and consulting my instructor Pedro, I decided that casting silicone would be too risky at this stage; it would be my first time working with the material, and I would need to 3D print multiple layers of the inverse of my model to create my cast mold. Instead, I decided to 3D print the entire model with a flexible material called Angilus.

I finalized my 3D model on Rhino and contacted NYU’s LaGuardia Studio to consult about my material options and best practices for finalizing my model. They were able to print in any Pantone color, so I picked a muted purple to give a feminine shade to an otherwise bizzare and tough looking object.

I also remodelled my actuator to make it fit bigger, stronger magnets, and created a custom actuator arm with designated holes for the feathers. I 3D printed it with white filament and spray painted it silver after coiling.