One of the classics of circuit bending is to mess around with the clock chip that drives the CPU in simple noise-making toys. [Goran] took this a step further with his Furby hack. Skip down to the video embedded below if you just want to see the results.
After first experiments modifying the Furby’s clock with a string of resistors (YouTube), [Goran] decided to opt for more control, overriding the clock entirely with a square wave coming out of an Arduino. And then, the world became his oyster.
The Furby’s eyes were replaced with ultrasonic distance sensors, and what looks like a speaker was hot-glued into its mouth. Since this particular Furby only “talks” when you pull its tail, he naturally wired in tail-switch control to boot. As [Goran] suggests, a light show is the obvious next step.
If you haven’t pulled apart an electronic toy and played around with glitching it, you don’t know what you’re missing. We’ve got a classic intro to circuit bending, as well as projects that range from the simple to the ridiculously elaborate. It’s a fun introduction to electronics for the young ones as well. Grab a toy noisemaker and get hacking.
What a creepy hack.
Read “Naked Furby Knows When You’re Near.” Was very unsettled.
Program it to sing Daisy Bell!!!
Creepy hack is awesome; keep walking that uncanny valley!
Of course. Because Furby needed to be more horrifying.
Yes it is a bit Creepy but kids still love him :) But every time he is around kins he goes back with Eyes(sensors) poked with fingers :) Here is one more video we recoded for fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NUc3_WDt68
Why doesn’t somebody do something “simple” to resurrect the Millions of Now Useless “Chumby” devices that were Abandoned by Bunnie Huang (and related crew)? “Simple is the key-word here; not weeks of hacking.
Let’s see a disassembly of the pseudo-AI software in the Furby. They were (are) an impressive toy, and I see one manufacturer of a modern (different) toy is using what seems to be similar behaviours and language patterns.