Chimp-to-text mod

Arduino-based self-spamming toy

What I Made

A modified piece of MailChimp swag that not only lights up and makes sound, but also spams me with text messages.

Concept

This project began with the impetus of many of my 'making' projects    -- use only scavenged, gifted, or already-owned materials; those just happened to be some sound-making devices: a kit with a small speaker that emits frog noises, and a monkey keychain with a button on its head that, when pressed, makes the keychain emit uncanny chimp sounds and two bright, blue beams from LEDs in the eyes.

I decided to modify this keychain to subvert its original purpose as MailChimp swag, a brand-building physical good.

The original keychain had two functions upon button press:

>2 LEDs light up in eyes
>speaker emits monkey sound

I modified it to have three functions:

>2 LEDs light up in eyes
>speaker emits monkey sound
>chimp spams me with text messages

Process

I cracked open the chimp and gutted its electronics. After figuring out my new schematic, I settled on:

- connect Chimp's circuit to DigitalReadSerial Arduino sketch (to print to serial whether the button/circuit was closed or not)

- use Processing to read button press from serial port data

- when I press the button, Processing sketch sends an email

- I direct this email to send me an SMS, since this is the most potentially disruptive/spammy/attention-grabbing type of notification I can get

My final step was soldering and re-integrating the button back into the chimp (and resoldering the connection to the speaker), so unlike in the above video, the sound now works and the chimp appears as below -- looking and operating as it originally did, except that pressing the button now also sends a torrent of SMS to my phone.

See how it works in the video at the top of this page.

Next iteration

One qualm about my project: I actually think MailChimp is a shining example of ethical and well-designed email marketing. For my next iteration I might take aim instead at contemporary marketing practices and brand-building through physical swag and social media — for example, instead of spamming myself, pressing the button would use the Instagram API to look up and favorite certain sponsored Instagram posts.

Processing sketch based on 2013 sketch "Simple Email Checking" by Dave Robertson.

Arduino sketch based on example sketch DigitalReadSerial.