Crazy Dave

Inspiration

Our inspiration came from a classic: Plants vs. Zombies. We all love the idea of a smart, interactive garden, but what about the cow, sheep, and other uninvited guests? We wanted to build a "Crazy Dave" for the real world—a tool that actively defends your plants, not just waters them.
We were also incredibly inspired by the hackathon's sponsor challenges. We asked ourselves: how could we build something playful, fundamentally wacky, and use truly expressive audio, all while... possibly winning a real-life dairy cow?
Crazy Dave was born from that idea: a platform to recognize garden visitors and deploy bio-acoustic defenses (and diplomacy) using a simple Google Home Mini.

What it does

Animal Detection: Listens for approaching animals using a microphone.
Smart Response: Identifies species via Wordware and uses Fish Audio to repel pests or serenade friendly visitors.
Expressive Audio: Generates lifelike voices, music, and high-frequency tones for dynamic reactions.
Hardware Integration: Runs on a Google Home Mini prototype; future versions will use low-cost, self-contained sensors and speakers.
Interactive Play: Encourages curiosity and connection by making garden care fun, responsive, and alive.

How we built it

Input: Microphone captures animal sounds.
Processing: Wordware converts audio to text and identifies animals.
Output: Fish Audio produces lifelike sounds—frequencies, music, or voice.
Hardware: Google Home Mini serves as speaker; future iterations will use custom, cost-effective speakers and microphones.
Future Expansion: Crater integration for modular, playful extensions.

Challenges we ran into

Real-time Detection: Processing animal sounds accurately in diverse outdoor environments.
AI Sound Matching: Generating the right frequency or song for each type of animal.
Hardware Miniaturization: Ensuring the system remains affordable while maintaining responsiveness.
Playful Interaction: Balancing functionality (repelling pests) with engagement (welcoming friendly animals).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Created a system that can distinguish between pests and friendly animals in real time.
Integrated Fish Audio to deliver expressive, emotionally rich sound responses.
Developed a fully interactive, playful experience that merges AI and nature.
Designed a system scalable to future iterations with smaller, low-cost hardware.

What we learned

AI can bring personality and life to everyday environments.
Interactive technology doesn’t need to be complex to be delightful.
Protecting plants can be fun, playful, and educational, not just utilitarian.

What's next for Crazy Dave

Compact, low-cost hardware for widespread home use.
Expanded AI interactions with multiple sound profiles and custom animal responses.
Crater-enabled extensions for deeper interactivity and playful experimentation.
Integration with smart gardening systems for holistic plant care.