NintenPals

Project Overview

Purpose:

Gain experience building an electromechanical widget using a PIC32 microcontroller, within a $120 budget.

Background:

Airline passengers (FLIERS) experience high levels of stress when traveling. Design a Personal Animatronic Lifeform (PAL) to act as a calming companion.

Solution:

NintenPals revives the nostalgia of the famous game Nintendogs, calming FLIERS through a series of interactions: inserting an SD card, petting a stuffed dog, and playing a feeding game.

FLIER Interaction Demonstration

nintenpals.mov

Core Functionalities

SD Card

A continously powered IR LED is in line with a IR receiver, consistently reading a high signal until the user inserts the SD card. This causes a contactless interaction, breaking the beam of light and transitioning the PAL from a welcome state to waiting for the next interaction - petting

Petting

The next interaction granted users a warmer, non-digital experience, requiring a large-scale motion to pet a stuffed dog. A capacitive touch sensor, requiring just the change in capacitance due to human contact, was stitched into the dog enabling easy sensing and minimal visibility, starting the feeding game

Feeding Game

The game entailed an analog input using a joystick that was mapped to an analog output moving a dog on a screen towards randomly generated bones whilst avoiding a cat. The game display was a series of 3 LED matrices wired together to create a large screen to improve the complexity of game-play for FLIERS and the viewing experience of co-passengers. Audio queues of a bone chomp or meowing sound provided users feedback of their success, whilst a motorized platform with the stuffed dog tracked game-time and thus progress towards zen. A final score was presented to users, allowing for fun competitions and long-term engagement with the PAL.