As computing becomes more ubiquitous in our objects, designers need to be more aware of how to design meaningful interactions into electronically enhanced objects. At the University of Washington, a class of junior Interaction Design majors is exploring this question. These pages chronicle their efforts.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Jered and Ciera | Knolling | VHS Tape Rewinder

For the knolling project, we went to Value Village on Capitol Hill. There was a wide variety of cheap household electronics to rummage through, from slide projectors to telephones to kids' toys. We selected a VHS tape rewinder built in 1989 by Solidex Inc.




After disassembling and knolling the object, we were surprised by just how many individual parts there were. A VHS tape rewinder seems like it would be a simple thing, and yet there were dozens of screws, tabs, wheels and other pieces.

Use of the rewinder starts by pressing a button on the front to open the tape carriage. Inserting a tape and closing the carriage causes a microswitch to be depressed, which starts the DC motor and rewinds the tape. The rewind spindle is connected via rubber belt to an analog counter which keeps track of how far the tape has been rewound. When the tape has been fully rewound it is ejected automatically.
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