Introduction

The idea comes from my fiancée, who always has a lot of meetings and sometimes forgets about the time and the meetings end up too long. She sets timers, but it’s quite easy to just swipe up the timer on her phone and keep the meeting on. I often need to remind her, by doing this “tap the watch” thing multiple times.

We sometimes spend way too much time on social media these days, and some apps like instagram and tiktok can be addictive. Once one starts scrolling, it will be difficult to stop. There are various time reminder apps, including the app limit time on iPhone, they are digital and easy to turn off — because we, the users, have the ability to make the ultimate command to extend the time we use social media. Therefore, in my opinion, something more impactful than a notification on the screen might help — something that can physically remind one about time.

The sketch below depicts a toy, a nutcracker, who wears a fake watch on the left wrist, and has a built-in motor on the left elbow. The motor is able to turn the forearm and eventually let the nutcracker’s finger slap on the watch, to make a noise. It does not have to remind one about the usage of social media, can also be a meeting reminder — further decisions will be made. The toy is connected to the phone or computer through wifi or bluetooth, and it can count the usage time of a certain app, upon the user’s settings.

The constraints are material and size. The finger part of the toy needs to be resilient yet stable, because the finger needs to constantly strike the watch. The watch and the other arm, on the other hand, need to be hard enough to bear the strikes. In terms of size, the toy will be the similar size of a water bottler so one can leave it on the table, whether plugged or power-driven.