Reflection

Critically reflect on the success of this project. Were the aspirations and ambitions achieved. Was it received and encountere din the ways you wanted? If not, why not? What do you need to get there, etc?

Some next steps we could follow for this project could include improving the housing of the electronics, as well as processing speech recognition natively on the device. In our current design we use a connected laptop to transcribe speech to text so that we can speak the opposite of what was heard. This, in a way, takes away from the spookiness of the device since it is unable to operate on its own. In the future we could look into adding more moving parts to the device so that it seems more ‘alive’ when the user is interacting with it. One way of doing this would be following a design similar to animatronic stuffed animals.

Our device raised the question of how disconnected we are from the smart devices that power our homes and help us in our daily lives. We constantly use these devices without even thinking that they could have needs, just like humans do. While this is currently not the case, it is possible that in the future AI becomes so advanced that it is essentially indistinguishable from a human. Our device gives a small glimpse into this possible future as well as the negative aspects of it.

We synthesized our varying skill sets with Kimberlyn’s design and IoT interest, Rio’s electrical expertise, and Rohan’s programming prowess. The fluffy physical form of the prototype gave the device a cute draw for an unknowing user. Once the user is pulled in, the device begins to reveal some of its more undesirable traits of retaliation when it is not given enough attention. This dichotomy between a seemingly cute and benign object and its occasionally rogue behavior offered a spooky experience that forces users to reconsider their typical interactions with their technology devices.