Concept
The plan for my final project is to create a pet cat experience. For someone who loves cats but was never fortunate enough to be blessed with one because her mother dislikes the idea of having a cat in the house, I want to take this opportunity to give those who are in the same situation like myself to experience the joy of having a cat, without upsetting their mothers.
The cat will be built from cardboard, and it will have a collar in which the user can choose a name of their liking to be displayed on the collar. Cats love pets and users will be able to pet the cat and have it meow or purr in content.
When you extend your hand towards the cat, the cat will give you its paw and hand you a “gift”. This act of gift giving from a cat is “an expression of affection and trust” which “shows they value your companionship and consider you part of their social group.” (Cited from here)
However, the “gifts” the cats bring can range from random toys, to dead animals. This will be reflected in the P5.js sketch wherein every time a user extends their hand, the cat will give them a new “gift”.
I hope this cat will provide comfort for cat lovers like me, or even turn non-cat lovers into one!
Arduino
Ultrasonic Sensor and Servo Motor
The ultrasonic sensor will be placed on the side of the cat, under one of the cat’s paws that is raised. The reading from the ultrasonic sensor is used to calculate the distance of the hand from the cat. If the distance is smaller than a certain threshold, this triggers the servo motor to turn which causes the cat’s paw to lower and touch the user’s hand. Once the hand is lowered, it triggers the display of the randomized object the cat will hand to the user on the P5 sketch.
Pressure Sensor
The pressure sensor will be placed on the cats head, so that when a user pets the cat, this pressure is recorded. This will then trigger the sound of a cat’s meow to play from P5.
P5
LCD Screen
The P5 sketch will prompt the user to fill in an input box to give the cat a name of their choosing. This name will be sent to the Arduino to be displayed on the LCD screen which will be placed on the cat’s neck, like a collar.
Progress
So far, I have developed a test run code for the communication between Arduino and P5, in terms of the pressure sensor, ultrasonic sensor, servo motor, and LCD screen. In this testing sketch, the pressure reading affects the background color of the sketch.
I have also started developing the interface of the final sketch on a separate P5 sketch. So my next step is to further develop the final P5 sketch and then incorporate the code I developed in the testing sketch into the final one. I will also have to build the actual cat from cardboard.