Aqua Armor!

For my freshman year design project within MIT’s Toy Product design class, my team created Aqua Armor! We ran through several iterations of ways to create this game in which the two players conducted a water gun fight while using shields and wearing vests. After a lot of prototyping and user testing, we designed these. The shield begins fully white, however when it gets wet, it becomes clear to reveal a colorful pattern. This way, players can easily see who has taken the most damage by how white or colorful their shield is. By the rules of our game, the player loses their shield once the design is fully revealed. The goal is then to hit the target marked by the x on the player’s vest. Beneath this x is a water sensor which activates a buzzer to signal the end of the fight.

We created Aqua Armor by first creating the shape of the shield out of solid green foam. To construct this, we used a bandsaw and sander to get the piece as smooth and close to the shape we wanted as possible. Once we finished the green foam, we thermoformed a large piece of clear plastic over it. We decided to thermoform the shield to get a thin and lightweight plastic toy that’s easy to carry around. We then attached our design to the inner surface and covered the outer surface with a white coating (Figure 1) that becomes transparent when wet to reveal the design (Figure 2). Two pieces of elastic are fastened to the back around the center, so that the shield could be held easily. We fashioned the vest out of cotton twill and used white elastic and small buckles to make adjustable straps that can fit any child (Figure 3). On the inside of the vest is the electronic components. The fabric was layered to only minimally cover  the sensor to allow it to trigger easily with little water, while the rest of the vest is thicker. The sensor was sewn into the fabric in a specific orientation to allow exposure to water. We wrapped the remainder of the electronics in a thin, airtight plastic hidden within the vest to keep them from getting wet, and kept the circuit simple to minimize the components that would be held. This plus the soft cotton twill material kept the vest lightweight and comfortable.

Aside from generally working on the design and manufacturing of the toy, I held the position of financial officer on the team and took the lead on electronics. As financial officer, I was in charge of creating and keeping track of our budget and making sure we could acquire everything needed in a timely manner.

By the end of the project, we found that kids loved the colors and sounds associated with playing! Parents also enjoyed the design because it motivated kids to hit the shields and vests rather than each other, the vests kept their clothes dry, and the toy created a safe and active game.