BLINCAM is an attachment for glasses that snaps pictures with a blink of an eye.  It recognizes a deliberate wink, makes a sounds, then uploads the picture to your phone via Bluetooth.  It is designed so that you can naturally take candid photos of people completely hands free and instantly.The rectangular camera element is attached on the side of the glasses to keep face completely clear.

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Tinderprint is a dating platform that finds your true love based on qualities of your fingerprint.  Fingerprints are frequently use to predict personalities and future events, so logically, they should also predict true love A fingerprint sensor detects important areas of your finger print, and matches those qualities with other people in the platform.   The web app sends emails and will show each user their compatible matches.

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PlayDate is a ball toy that allows you to play with your pets from remote locations.  The ball contains a camera, which shows video of your pet to your mobile device.  The app then allows you to both see your pet and control the balls movement.  The ball has a speaker to play noises and so that you can talk to your pet while playing.  It also has a microphone so that you can here them too.  The app also allows for photo and video to be taken at any moment.

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General Description and Objectives

Created by David Perry, Hajin Kim, and Lissa Biltz, Fish out of Water is an interactive, fish robot on the Pololu 3pi robot platform.

The user draws various things on a whiteboard table, and the fish reacts to them appropriately.  On its own, the fish moves in a random, sinusoidal path.  However, various obstacles cause the fish to change it behaviors.  Darker and thicker drawings are considered major obstacles and threats to the fish, so it turns around and moves in a different direction.  Thinner lines are interpreted as beneficial to the fish, so the fish moves through them and makes happy noises.

Originally, our purpose was to make a robotic fish able to interpret user drawings exactly and emulate very real behaviors of a fish in a fish tank like environment.  However we realized that the 3pi platform would be unable to sense colors of whiteboard markers easily,and that the behavior of the fish would be too repetitive too quickly.  While the user can overall trigger various reactions from the fish, there is a lot of ambiguity in what the fish will decide is a thick or thin line, emulating the fact that the fish has free will.  Also the appearance of the fish is not meant to replicate any species of fish specifically.  So as each user draws and discovers the reactions of the fish, they are creating their own environment and specific fish in the water.

Narrative 

Some people consider looking at fish as a relaxing activity.  Amidst the stress culture of CMU, Fish out of Water was designed to calm students down in ordinary places, such as a library or a residence hall.  However, since user’s drawings are what influence the fish’s behavior, experiences and result change from person to person.

Work Distribution

David Perry- Created the default path for the fish.   Programed the sensors on the 3pi to recognize the difference between thin and thick lines.  Programmed the behavior of the fish.

Hajin Kim- Designed the overall appearance of the fish through various prototypes.  Laser cut and fabricated the fish.  

Lissa Biltz- Wired the LED, explored fish sounds, Programmed behavior of the fish.

Initial Prototype

 Final Product

Technical Documentation

Circuit Diagram

Link to download source code and dxf file

fishoutofwaterSource