Make a Digital Pet

The Problem

Children staying in hospitals for long periods of time often end up feeling lonely.   You are to design and make a Digital Pet that children can play with, to keep them company whilst they stay in hospital.

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Success Criteria

Your Pet design must :

	contain a micro:bit that users can interact with.
	look like a friendly pet / creature (be creative).
	be strong enough to be handled and played with.
	have a face that shows different emotions when interacted with.
	have one or more interactions programmed so it behaves like a pet to keep the user company.

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Possible Ideas

Here are some possible ideas that could be programmed for your Pet:
	reacting to playing/shaking (accelerometer)
	feeding (every few hours)
	needing attention (gets lonely if not interacted with frequently)
	sleeping and waking (light sensor)
	reacting to temperature (temperature sensor)
	mini games
	communication/interaction between pets
	use of other inputs such as other types of sensors (requires additional hardware)
	use of other outputs such as sound or movement (requires additional hardware)

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Design

There are two ways you could create your Pets body. 1) Use one of the templates below (print or trace from your Laptop screen) and use as a template to cut around on cardboard. 2) Design your own using whatever materials you can find around your house (ask permission from your parents first though!). The most important thing to remember is to be creative and come up with something fun and interesting. Think about the needs of the user and how they will interact with the Pet. What would they expect a pet to do and how should it behave?

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Digital Pet Templates

Cat

Rabbit

Monkey

Monster

Blank Template

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Pet Coding Example

When programming your Pet always remember to consider the following:

	How is the user interacting with the pet?
	What are the inputs, processes and outputs?
	Test your pet continuously and adjust and improve as you go along
	Keep in mind the success criteria

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		Use your Journal to design and develop your Digital Pet.
		Complete all of the required sections of your Journal.
		Paste pictures of your finished Pet and your coding into your Journal.
		If possible, take some video of it working as well!

Examples using the Monster template:

 

Other ideas: