Schrödinger's V̵̰̼̌o̶͔͐i̵̹͑̎̕d̵̨̟͇̐̀

Meet your new friend,
the ̴V̵́͒o̵͖͂̌̑̌̈̆id̷̃́

Freaked out FLIERs,

'Schrödinger's Void' will now accompany you on your frightful flights! Forget your fears as you attempt to decipher this playful, yet mysterious, PAL (Personal Animatronic Lifeform). Officially, the Void is a ███████ originating from ██████████, discovered in ██████ by ████████.

The Void is an amorphous creature, but it responds enthusiastically to the same interactions as your typical household pet! Feed, cuddle, and pet your way to tranquility. With each successfully completed interaction, The Void responds by exhibiting increasing excitement and happiness. Only when all interactions are successfully completed will you and The Void both reach the ultimate state of Zen!*

Warning: during interaction, it is very important that you do not █████ the Void, as this may cause a catastrophic ██████████ and tear the fabric of space and time.

The Inspiration

The name, Schrödinger's Void (shortened as "The Void"), is inspired by Schrödinger's cat and void cats. The Void attempts to capture the fascinating intrigue of void cats to preoccupy and delight FLIERs in their moments of distress.

Schrödinger's Void takes the form of a cute mysterious companion in an intriguingly nondescript cardboard box. It responds adoringly to feeding, petting, and cuddling, though the exact form of The Void is kept intentionally formless and ambiguous to preserve mystery and intrigue. Just don't ask how we got it in the box in the first place.

Void cats - Black cats engulfed by dark surroundings

Interactions
Feeding

Feed The Void by tossing its favorite snack, a ping pong ball, into the box through the handle. If you have fed it an especially yummy ball, the Void will crouch down to absorb its treat and greet you with adoring eyes.

Cuddling

Cuddle The Void by lifting and holding it. As you continue to cuddle it, The Void responds with increasingly adoring heart eyes, until you've reached maximum cuddling state.

Petting

Pet The Void by reaching into the top of the box and stroking its body side to side. The Void will respond by vibrating and purring contently, while tracking your movement with its eyes. If you pet harder, the purring gets louder. As you continue to stroke across its entire body, The Void will respond with increasingly adoring heart eyes, until you've reached maximum petting state.

Schrödinger's Void Interactions - Feeding (left), petting (middle), and cuddling (right)

Emotion States
Welcome State

The Void invites you with its calming and mysterious presence. It breathes slowly and peers out with soft and welcoming eyes, waiting for you to pet, cuddle, or feed it.

Happiness States

The Void responds to each successfully completed interaction with an increased display of excitement and joy. It displays excitement through the rate of its breathing and joy through the expression on its eyes. However, if you ignore The Void for 30 seconds, it loses interest and returns to its Welcome state. The passage of time since the beginning of your first interaction is captured through a rotating dial on the side of The Void's box.

Zen State

Once you have fed The Void and reached maximum cuddling and petting states, you and The Void will be overcome by a shared feeling of peace and calm: Zen. In the Zen state, The Void responds with unbridled joy before receding into a deep and content slumber.

FLIERs' Tutorial

Tutorial_Video.MOV

Project Description

For ME218A, Autumn 2022, we were tasked to design a Personal Animatronic Lifeform (PAL) to provide therapeutic support to anxious airplane FLiers Interested in Experiencing Relaxation (FLIERs).

The purpose of this project is to apply the fundamental concepts of ME 218A to design and build an electromechanical device that responds to a variety of user inputs. All sensors and actuators must be implemented through an event-driven framework and controlled using a PIC32 microcontroller.

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