(Link to Instructable)

PatPet is an emotional pillow that reacts to our behaviors. Just like how pets interact with us.

It has three emotional status: calm (sleepy), cheerful and angry.

When we do nothing with it, its blue breath light will turn on and off.

When we pat it gently, it will be happy and shake a little bit with light turned green.

However, if you hit it really hard, it will keep trembling for a while and turn red.

The initial idea come from my experience of taking care of my friend’s cat for two weeks. She is a super sweet cat, and made me feel so healing when she lay on my legs. Since I am not able to have my own pet, it will be a good idea to have an object that acts like one, and still have some healing effect.

One of the most relevant precedents is the My Beating Heart pillow designed by Yury Gitman. However, I feel it is missing some playfulness and interactions with us. PatPet will have a little bit characteristic and make us treat it as a living creature.

Above are some key materials and components I used for making PatPet.

Work in progress…

And here is PatPet’s final look!

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Thank you for all these happy classes we spent together! Enjoy the winter break!

(Here are two small assignments that I left behind.)

Week 11 Play with Thermochromic Ink!

Week 12 Play with Flexinol!

1. Arduino code: (Turn Arduino into a sound source)

2. Test sound source:

3. Test circuit:

4. Speaker 01:

5. Speaker 02:

6. Speaker 03:

7. Speaker 04:

1. Valu Liner – Naltex

A rubber-like material. Feels soft but elastic.

2. Rubber cork – AND/OR

Cork-like material but made by rubber. Much more durable and have different color choices.

3. Denim Fabric Panel – DEMODE

Compressed denim fabric. Super interesting texture.

(Link to Instructable)

For my midterm lamp project, the inspiration came from the traditional Chinese shadow play.

Characters and stage sets are made by leather, and performers control the puppet behind the screen. Lights behind the screen let audience enjoy the play vividly.

Using shadows or the transparency of materials to design lights is quite popular. There are amazing works playing with similar ideas. However, I feel there is a lack of interaction, and it might be interesting to add some functions along with the light.

The concept of my design is to make a story light box. By changing the color of light and placing different story boards, users can create a small stage and tell a story out of it.

Here is a demo video:

Team member: Joselyn McDonald, Xinhe Feng, Kieun Kim

(Needles for sewing machine)

Password: thankyouaneta

Circuit Illustration

The idea comes from the animation Wall-E. And the sentence is simply a calling from robot Wall-E: Eve?

In-class Assignment – Parallel Circuit