The first part of our prototype involved getting the circuit to work.
We started with a simple LED and capacitive touch device. The idea was that when one sensor was touched, it would send a signal to another board, causing an LED to light up. We faced some challenges getting the two Photon devices to connect over a webhook. However, after multiple attempts at creating new access tokens and a lot of trial and error, we finally got the two Photons to connect.
Once the devices were connected and the LED was blinking, we brainstormed the form of our product to decide how to place the lights.
Our reinterpretation involved creating an emotion-sharing device through memes, designed for two friends. Inspired by the LumiTouch, we envisioned a device that wouldn't send a discrete message but rather indicate a person's feelings. We decided to create a small box with multiple memes on it. Person A could touch any of the memes to communicate their emotion to Person B, with a light color corresponding to the selected meme.
We sketched several box designs to understand how to accommodate the circuit and create an appealing, fun-looking product. For this prototype, we chose a small house-like structure to evoke a homely, comfortable feeling of friendship. This design also allowed us to fit the circuit and have enough space for the memes.
We selected two memes, happy and sad, both featuring cats since we both like cats. We also envisioned that the memes could be changed when the person buys the house. We selected the colors and backgrounds to evoke the corresponding emotions, and used light diffusion to enhance the product's aesthetic appeal.