Wattson

Wattson and a Bear
Wattson recognizing you

Inspiration

As students, oftentimes, working alone at a desk for hours can feel incredibly isolating. As such, we wanted to explore what it would look like if an everyday object - something as ordinary as a desk lamp - could become a companion instead of just a tool. Wattson was inspired by the idea of giving personality, emotional awareness, and encouragement to an inanimate object, turning loneliness into interaction and productivity into something a little more fun.

What it does

Wattson is a desk-side companion that responds to you through expressive gestures, voice interaction, and emotional awareness, by:

Encouraging you with excited, curious, or calm gestures
Responding to voice commands and casual conversation
Playing interactive games like coin flips and rock-paper-scissors
Reading the emotional tones of your voice and reacting accordingly

Rather than focusing on utility, Wattson focuses on presence. He reacts to your mood, cheering your on, and keeping you company.

How we built it

Wattson was built using the LeLamp DIY Kit and a LeLamp Demo Bot, powered by a Raspberry Pi 5. The core components of the device included:

A 5-axis articulated arm controlled by servo motors
Custom 3D-printed structural parts
Voice input and command processing
AI-powered sentiment analysis to interpret user emotion
A custom personality prompt that drives expressive and optimistic responses

Hardware motion, voice input, and AI reasoning were integrated to create smooth, personality-driven interactions.

Challenges we ran into

Building Wattsom came with some significant hardware and software challenges. Notably:

Assembling and calibrating the physical kit required patience and repeated testing
Debugging servo motion and articulation was required repeatedly
Integrating real-time voice input, AI sentiment analysis, and responsive gestures introduced synchronization issues

As such, hardware proved to be a little more than just a bottleneck since it required careful iteration and constant verification.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our team is proud of:

Successfully articulating the arm to perform expressive, intentional gestures
Enabling responsive voice commands paired with physical motion
Integrating sentiment analysis so Wattson can react to emotional tones
Creating a personality-driven experience that feels playful and alive

In particular, we found seeing Wattson reacting naturally to speech and emotional responses was a major milestone and breakthrough!

What we learned

Hardware development requires patience and methodical testing
Small issues compound quickly if not isolated early
Reproducibility and step-by-step verification are essential
Personality and interaction design are just as important as technical functionality

Overall, we learned that sometimes progress isn't just about moving fast, and that sometimes it's about inspecting everything more carefully.