The Yummy machine on the left is a robot that was created for Boondoggle and their client Delhaize. It has over 14 motors, controlled by an Arduino board, with a wireless link to a Flash Air interface. He has a fully functional head and neck, and two arms of which one has a hand for picking up stuff. And of course we made sure he has the absolute maximum amount of cuteness. Visit the actual campaignsite.

Slightly OverDone Studio produces interactive installations for which there are no borders between physical and virtual worlds. Only interfaces.

It is very important to mention that this project would not have been made without the many efforts by Dieter Vanhoof and Niels Schreyers, the creative team at Boondoggle, and their creative director Hans Kerkhoff, to push this project through. On the right you can see the first scetches they gave me as a brief for this project. Dispite the many technical challenges I believe I came pretty close.

I got a call for this project the morning after I came back from Berlin, where we were attending the Pictoplasma conference. With my head still full of characters you can imagine the excitement I felt, when I could combine 2 of my biggest passions, interactive installations and character design, in one project !

It took me 5 weeks to build this robot. I will post a more extended making-of soon but in the meantime you can watch this video from the shooting of his portrait on the right.

Contact Jan De Coster for more examples or read about them on my blog.
Phone: +32486139161

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I would like to dedicate this project to my wife's father, Henri Christiaens, who died one day after I started working on the robot. With his enthusiasm for mechanics and electronics, I am sure he would have been excited to see the result. His unexpected passing reminded us that life is short, and that we should enjoy life as much as possible, and certainly in the work that we do.