Smart Fairy Tale Is a Smartphone-Controlled Storytelling Machine

There are many ways to tell a story, whether through writing, video, or orally. As demonstrated by Niklas Roy and Felix Fisgus – in collaboration with Wolfgang Kowar and a wide range of other contributors – you can also express a tale using a Rube Goldberg-esque arrangement of physical animations.

The “Smart Fairy Tale” machine was built as an installation for the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany. It’s meant to be public art, where people are able to log on to the center’s network, then trigger a little red ball and modify its path through a series of transparent tubes via a local webpage, generated using a Raspberry Pi 4. “Public,” in this case extends far beyond its display, as citizens of Wolfsburg were invited to donate unused toys to the exhibit. These were integrated into the design, with the help of idea drawings from kids in elementary school.

According to Roy's write-up, although there weren’t any clear stories conveyed in the final build, the machine does allow one to create your own narrative about what’s happening. Perhaps this is yet another level in the project’s public participation theme?

From a technical standpoint, each animation is made as a separate module controlled by its own independent Arduino Nano – 25 in total – along with servos, LEDs, and the like, all triggered by a light barriers when the ball rolls past. This keeps the project’s code manageable, while providing some redundancy if one part of the apparatus doesn’t work quite correctly.

As seen in the video below, it looks like a lot of fun! More details on Smart Fairy Tale are available on Roy's website.