Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Gamified Focus-Detection Tamagotchi |
Khushi Murthy Michael Yang Noah Yi |
Tim Jiang | ||
| # Problem We are currently living in a time where Gen Z’s attention span is being reduced due to short form media content and various social and technological distractions, leading to decreased productivity. As such, students who force themselves to sit through hours of studying will often find themselves struggling to stay motivated and on task. Methods such as the Pomodoro strategy have been shown to help increase productivity through structure, yet continuous accountability and immediate feedback when a user becomes distracted are still missing factors. # Solution We propose an interactive, desk-based smart companion inspired by a Tamagotchi. The device monitors several indicators of user focus and translates them into the emotional and physical behavior of a desktop pet. A host computer will collect simple focus-related signals, including active application information, keyboard and mouse activity, and whether the user is present at the desk. These signals will be combined into a focus score and transmitted to a microcontroller contained inside a 3D printed enclosure through USB serial communication. The microcontroller will maintain the pet's behavioral state and control its physical outputs. Sustained focus may cause the pet to appear happy or energetic, while extended inactivity or distraction may cause it to appear sad, tired, or perform a physical gesture such as waving its arms to attract the user’s attention. Therefore, our goal is for the companion to create an immediate, external feedback loop that gamifies focus and reinforces effective work habits. The project is divided into three primary subsystems: It will have 3 different subsystems: Software Logic Subsystem: We will connect the board to the laptop to collect focus-related information from the host and compute a focus score. Microcontroller Subsystem: The embedded controller itself that manages the pet’s behavioral state machine and controls the hardware outputs. The Display: Provides the user-facing visual and mechanical feedback for the pet’s state # Solution Components ## Subsystem 1 : Software Logic Subsystem Description: Runs in the background on the host computer to monitor focus. It tracks active application titles, keyboard/mouse input activity, and uses the host webcam to detect desk presence via basic face tracking. To keep the image-processing component feasible, the webcam will not attempt complex activity, emotion, or identity recognition. It will perform a constrained presence-detection task using an existing computer-vision library such as OpenCV or MediaPipe. The system will assume a relatively fixed webcam position and desk environment. It aggregates these metrics into a scoring metric that represents focus state and sends periodic command packets over USB-serial to the hardware. The main software design challenge of this subsystem will be the fusion of multiple imperfect signals into a reliable and explainable focus metric, rather than relying on computer vision alone. Parts: Host PC Software packages ## Subsystem 2 : Microcontroller and Custom Control PCB Subsystem Description: A custom PCB will integrate the Raspberry Pi Pico with the system's power distribution, display interface, actuator-control circuitry, peripheral connectors, and protection components. The board will receive focus-state information from the host computer over USB and generate the electrical control signals required by the display and mechanical actuators. Parts: Microcontroller Board: Raspberry Pi Pico (Part #: SC0915) USB interface Voltage regulation and power distribution circuitry Servo control interfaces Display communication interface ## Subsystem 3 : Display and Actuation Subsystem Description: Provides the physical feedback that makes the device function as a desktop companion. A small display will show animated facial expressions corresponding to the current behavioral state of the pet. One or more servo motors will provide additional mechanical feedback by moving physical components such as the pet's arms. Parts: Small OLED or TFT display Micro servo motors Mechanical arm linkage 3D-printed enclosure Supporting power and signal circuitry # Criterion For Success Success would consist of meeting our objectives for both the hardware and software portion of the project. The software must successfully collect application activity, keyboard/mouse activity, and webcam-based desk-presence information and combine these inputs into a reproducible focus score or state. The host computer must successfully transmit low-latency focus-state updates to the hardware with outputs being shown within 1-2 seconds. The microcontroller must reliably maintain at least four distinct behavioral states, with each state transition determined by documented focus-score thresholds and timing conditions. Finally, Given the same sequence of focus inputs, the system should produce the same behavioral response. Every pet expression and mechanical action should therefore be traceable to a specific focus metric or state-machine transition. |
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