Product

Describe your experience/working prototype: What did you create, how, etc.? What tools and technologies were involved? Include appropriate content and illustration (e.g. a concept video, a video of the device in operation, diagrams, code, etc.) How does it relate or build on existing work (provide acknowledgements or cite this work).

You should report this in sufficient detail that anyone knowledgable with electronics etc would be able to reconstruct your implementation. Be sure to include a system diagram, annotated images, code, and a bill of materials. 

Our initial idea for a prototype was to have some sort of friendly form that would be ergonomic to hold and enjoyable to have in the home. We chose this design because it would make the device more inviting for the user to hold, something that was essential to our design. In our initial plan we had designed a few shapes that we could 3D print, one that looked like an egg and another that looked lke a small doll. Also, we hoped to use malleable materials when 3D printing to give the device a nicer feel, however this proved to be too difficult with the geometry of the design we had in mind. For the reactive lights we originally wanted to use a variable color RGB LED, however we encountered many issues when trying to write code for this.

For our final design we ended up using a stuffed animal hedgehog that housed all of our electronics. We felt that this striked a nice balance between form and function, while also keeping our goal of making the device friendly in mind. We also used two individual color LEDs instead of a single RGB LED, which allowed us to create a clear difference when the device was happy or sad.