Agreed, needs some side markings to locate where tape will land. Probably some graphics showing a center mark, and extents of tape.

Oh Wait! I know - 4 Laser Pointers on each corner shooting down to locate the tape placement. (Now we gotta add batteries).

Larger single wiper may be too much at the release and tear paper or not release. Split it up with smaller individual surfaces and you only have a small release to worry about but can gain contact surface for pulling. Getting there.

This one has my vote. One thing I thought of, and forgive me if this has already been mentioned.

IDEA
Perhaps a design or a mark on the sides that will let you know where the center of the tape is located. (Just a thought)

I like your designs, but now i am not sure how to vote on them.

Very nice. I would agree that a tape "door" is a must because it is a critical area of the mechanics of the device. If you accidentally squeezed or"stopped" the rotation of the tape, that would make it inoperable until re loaded.

Clear with wild interior parts is a great idea too

Winner in my book. Great idea. Great solution. My hats off.

I really like this a lot. Very compact and clean and I definitely like the front loading idea. I wouldn't close it off. That is just one more piece that could get broken or lost.

I hope this one wins!

Great Comments everyone. Agreed, can't solve everything without a prototype!

1) Wipers - we can easily make them longer to grab more tape (increase the surface area of grabbing.) I like the multi-points of contact that Bernie Graham suggested, but I think something flexible will work better. We'll have to dial in the durometer (softness) of the rubber wipers. We can prototype all the bits, then play with different wiper lengths & flexibilities.

2) Open Front - I envision a clear circular cap that goes over the tape to hold it in. Maybe twist to lock.

3) Recycled Plastic - Yes! Lets go green. What if we did clear plastic with chopped up ribbon in it? Wild huh.

4) Clear Casing - I'm game! We can do some funky interior colors like Brian suggested.

5) Grip, Ridges, Form - Yeah the form can really be improved and addressed now that we have a sound mechanical concept and know the size we'll need.

Rock on! 5 hours left.

@Jim
Great work again. Although I am all for easy loading, I personally would not go with an open face design. Having a snap fit door (like the battery door on a TI-82 calculator) is easy enough to open and once opened you have the same view and access as an open face design. The benefit is that in all the time in between changing that roll of tape (which could be weeks or it could be years) you do not accumulate the dust and other debris in those crevices and you get to have a smooth surface to grab while in use.

Ultimately, several in the Quirky community have provided great ideas in this ID phase and all should be considered as we enter the prototyping process. Maybe we'll have to assign influence for this round retroactively based on which functional execution worked the best. However, even that may not work as chances are that in physical prototyping new problems and solutions will be revealed and while all of our work will have inspired that final solution, none of our current work will likely be THE final solution.

By the way, let's celebrate the engineering on this one: Clear plastic casing with colorful internal parts.