TamaGO

Prototype TamaGO Screen Hardware
App inferface Prototype using Figma

Inspiration

As first year students, we quickly learned how easy it is to not go to your classes, whether it be due to low motivation, illness, or simply not wanting to go, causing you to fall behind! We wanted to help create a motivational solution that encourages you and celebrates you for going to class. What better way to do that then with one of the biggest fads ever - Tamagotchi!

What it does

tamaGO follows your adventure showing your alien friend around Earth. Take them with you to your classes, to the gym, wherever, as long as you are living your proper human life! tamaGO gets location data from your phone and sends it to the arduino system that acts as the alien. Based on whether or not you are where you're supposed to be, you'll get a different message through the LCD screen and buzzers from your tamaGO alien!

The app UI includes pixelated images of your alien, as well as a leaderboard that allows you to keep up with how your friends are doing (and compete with them!).

How we built it

We used Swift to develop the app and used Adafruit IO API to communicate it with an ESP8266 arduino module. This module accesses the internet and communicates data to the arduino board, which creates a response on the tamaGO alien! The UI was built with Figma!

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges we ran into were connecting the esp to the internet and sending data through the web. During testing, we found that the esp8266 can only connect to 2.4ghz connections, while the mac-events wifi connection is exclusively 5 ghz. Another challenge we faced was learning swift from scratch and calculating the user's distance. Along with set locations not being able to save.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Some accomplishments we are really proud of are: getting set locations onto the app. Having the esp8266 host it's own website to retrive data. Making visually appealing user interfaces with cute designs and its own customizable sound system given. Learning 3 different platforms and cross platform integrations!

What we learned

Hardware can take you a long way, but it requires a lot of modules! We wanted to implement location services directly on the TamaGO alien, but were unable to as we did not have a GPS module. We also were limited in what we could display as a result of the 16x2 LCD screen.

What's next for TamaGO

We'd love to complete a full model. This would include a fully fleshed-out app, and full hardware components. We would also love to add a connectivity part (think Nintendo StreetPass) that allows TamaGO aliens to meet each other in the wild!