Inspiration

As computer science students, our team is no stranger to long hours in front of a computer. Unfortunately, many of these hours end up being less effective than others, consisting of doom-scrolling or napping at the desk. We wanted a fun way to incentivize deep work while also keeping track of the times we work best. As fans of the Tamagotchi and Pokémon games, we wanted to combine the fun that comes with nurturing a creature/character with hard work.

What it does

Upon joining, new users are introduced to their new pet, Pudge. Pudge wants to make it in the world and the only way he can do so is with coins. However, in order to get coins, Pudge's master (the user), has to focus on the task at hand. As long as the user doesn't perform distracting tasks like tab switching or checking their phone, Pudge can successfully farm coins for his financial freedom. During every focus session, Pudge keeps track of the user's biosignals (eye movements, head tilts, etc.) to see if the user is falling off course. Pudge encourages the user by smiling when they focus and frowning when they are less focused. After the user's focus session is finished, they are given a report of the distractions they fell victim to and how to overcome them. They are also told tidbits such as the times they work best, and what they can emphasize for improvement. An extended summary of a users entire history can also be accessed, providing more information.

How we built it

We started with any daily ideas we felt like applied to the track we were interested in Flicker to Flow
Next came singling out a productivity bottleneck: maintaining extended study/focus sessions
After fine tuning our idea, and cementing a solid identity and purpose we began development
Split the program development in 3 ways, Computer vision, database connection, and UI development

Challenges we ran into

Designing our mascot and applying it to code
Using mediapipe to read user data
Putting Pudge on the desktop
Brainstorming the best way to measure and address distractions

Accomplishments that we're proud of

refactoring our computer-vision model, increasing confidence with eye and head movements.
transforming data from computer-visioned model into readable data
storing user information based on their focus scores to help growth