Rainbow Unicorn

A wearable smartwatch designed to detect specific arm gestures and light touches in emergency situations, triggering an immediate safety response.​

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Inspiration

Our project was inspired by the idea of creating a fun, accessible, and responsive interface that could help people — especially the disabled and elderly — receive assistance quickly and intuitively. With a touch of unicorn-themed charm, we set out to design a system that combines hardware sensors with a friendly digital UI to make asking for help feel simple, even magical.

What it does

Our prototype uses an ESP32 connected to a touch sensor and gyroscope to detect motion or contact from the user. When triggered, the ESP32 sends a Bluetooth signal to our Python backend, which in turn activates a full-screen popup window through a custom Kivy interface. The popup displays clear, visual feedback to indicate that help is on the way — perfect for users who may have visual, cognitive, or mobility challenges.

How we built it

We built it using Arduino (for sensor and Bluetooth logic), Python (as the backend), and Kivy (for a visual, intuitive interface). The design includes large, image-based buttons and a unicorn-themed background to keep the experience joyful and non-intimidating.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was debugging Bluetooth connectivity, especially when the ESP32 stopped appearing during pairing. We also had to work through syncing real-time sensor input with live UI updates while managing multithreading and serial port access.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of building a working pipeline from physical trigger → Bluetooth transmission → immediate on-screen feedback, especially with accessibility in mind. It feels amazing knowing this could help someone call for assistance more easily in their daily life.

What we learned

Through this project, we learned a lot about hardware/software integration, accessibility-driven design, Bluetooth communication, and responsive UI development. Our next steps are to add voice alerts, automatic emergency contact integration, and more customizable interface options to better serve users with varying abilities.

What's next for Rainbow Unicorn

For the next advancements in our project, we plan to add GPS tracking, voice recognition, and LTE/LoRa support. These additions would help support our original vision by providing more information to the caretaker and accounting for more dangerous situations.

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