Description
To achieve the goals stated in our introduction, our product is a plush desktop companion in the form of a cat, whose name is Pawl. It has the following features:
- Soft Toy Form Factor
- Provide users a sense of companionship while working to decrease loneliness
- Breaks up the rigid working environment, where is the main source of stress for users
- Soft exterior provides a sense of comfort on users whenever they feel down
- Digital Cat Face
- Users can activate 1hr Study Timer on Pawl where expression changes every 20mins to reflect increasing tiredness levels. Encouragement also given as face changes that mimics motivation provided by a friend. After the hour, the cat face reminds them to take a break and remind them to manage their stress levels
- Users can interact with Pawl by ‘petting’ his touch sensor, allowing users to take their minds off work temporarily when needed
- Clock and Wellness Advice:
Clock display is a useful tool on the desk and synchronises with the wellness advice Users will be able to obtain relevant wellness advice as the day progresses that reminds users to adopt healthy habits to cope with student life
In terms of project longevity, we hope that Pawl can be made available for all NUS students. Our plans for the future include promoting our product as an OHS Welcome Gift for freshmen, so that they can cultivate healthy studying habits from the start of the school term.
To further improve on our project, we would like to increase the range of form factors which can incorporate our LCD screens and hardware to appeal to different student preferences. Different soft toy skins can be used to increase customizability. This will generate greater student interest in our product and therefore, usage and impact on students.
To increase the technical capabilities of our product, we hope to incorporate an RGB screen with higher pixel density to increase capabilities of display and implement an MP3 module and speaker to play audio. This would allow colour changes to be displayed and sound bites to be played according to the expression of the cat, increasing its effectiveness in reminding them to take breaks.
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