Cookie Launcher Starts as Normal-Looking Tin, Becomes Hands-Free Holiday Treat Dispenser

Metal cookie tins are stacked on shelves, waiting for the Christmas season to begin, filled with delicious gingerbread and other treats. However, when it comes time to get a cookie, those lids can be a hassle to open, especially for people who have been drinking eggnog and helping with holiday preparations. One brilliant maker in Norway devised a solution to the problem: a unique system that blasts cookies directly into your mouth on command.

This genius, known online as The Skjegg, transformed an ordinary metal tin into a covert cookie launcher. To the outside world, it looks like any other tin, with the exception of a little hole cut into the top. Flip the top, and you’ll discover that things have changed inside: a slew of 3D-printed gizmos, motors, and electronics all working together to pop a cookie into your mouth without having to remove the lid.

A circular magazine serves as the cookie storage method. This contraption can keep up to 39 gingerbread sweets in discrete slots, with an additional slot for the one that’s about to be released. When you provide the instruction, a little N20 DC motor begins rotating the magazine round and round, gently putting the next cookie into place, until an optical sensor detects its location and stops the rotation dead in its tracks.

Another N20 DC motor handles the launch, but not the hard lifting, which is left to some dependable rubber bands stretched back by the motor until they’re ready to go. The motor then releases and snaps the launching arm forward, flinging the cookie upwards through the open trapdoor. The system manages to pop out around one cookie every ten seconds, give or take a few seconds, depending on who is paying attention.

The trapdoor is controlled by a servo motor, which flips it open just in time for the cookie to fly before slamming it shut again. A Seeed Studio XIAO SAMD21 microcontroller runs the entire operation, ensuring that everything is completed in the proper order.

Finally, an ADF Robot Gravity Voice Recognition module allows you to issue vocal commands in Norwegian. Want a cookie? Simply say the magic words, and the sequence begins: door opens, cookie loads, and launch follows. When they were testing the voice control, they discovered a problem: the bespoke commands only worked a few times before failing. Not wanting to rely solely on the voice module, The Skjegg included a physical button as a backup to ensure you could always get your cookie fix.

Of course, making something like this requires some trial and error, as they began with printed dummy cookies to get everything operating properly, but adding actual gingerbread to the mix caused some friction in the magazine. They fixed the problem by attaching some basic brackets to the magazine. Now you can just load the magazine, place the tin on a table, and summon your cookies with a voice command or a button click.
[Source]