Prototyping Monkey Buttons

After our first study together, Ilyena (ilyena.com) and me took on a new project that was going to be my thesis. We had more time in our hands. We decided to look into designing tangible buttons for monkeys, which could be used to trigger digital stimuli (audio, video). Plan was to mount these buttons into the tunnel-device from previous studies with the sakis.

We started off by brainstorming on a few ideas for what these ‘buttons’ could look like. In truth, we did not mean they need to be conventional buttons like push-buttons, but could act in different ways like pushing, pulling, sideways movements, or simple touch. More formal word for this used in research would probably be manipulanda.

For constructing the buttons, I used Fablab at Aalto University for any tools and materials I could not just get off-the-self. Some prototypes were more simple like our first prototype that consisted of three door knobs, or one from our second iteration that was actually a pulley-rope toy for dogs. Other prototypes were mostly made with wood and screws or other scrap parts from Fablab.

I did three rounds where I tested different buttons with the sakis in their enclosure. We decided to test the buttons by simply presenting and holding the buttons for sakis, waiting for them to come and explore them if they wanted to (rather than place them already inside the device). The testing was of course one of the most fun things to do, as I could spend time with the monkeys up close!

In each round we learned something new, and modified our ideas and design accordingly. In the end, one design was selected and we built a higher level prototype to test also the sensor we would be using with the button in the final device to trigger the digital stimuli. After the fourth iteration, our prototyping phase was concluded.