PLUSH MODE

PLUSH MODE is a crossover between a beloved pet and an empathetic companion. By playing with our plushie, you help each other discover your personalities while practicing mood regulation.

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Inspiration

We were all brought together by a love for plushies, and we wanted to take this hackathon as an opportunity to develop a smart plushie that serves a purpose beyond simple conversational loops. We hoped "PLUSH MODE" would push the expectations of AI toys beyond companionship into more self-reflective practices.

What it does

"PLUSH MODE" listens with the squeeze of its hand to a user's input, whether they want to share something that happened to them that day or ask PLUSH a question. PLUSH keeps an internal mood tracker that updates with each user query, and it responds appropriately to the user input (for instance, if someone says that they had a bad day, PLUSH responds empathetically and offers consolation and suggestions for improving one's day).

How we built it

We built a custom plush body by sewing found fabric materials together into a body. Our hardware was developed with an ESP32, a backend AI server that processes audio input, and two LCD round screens that served as emotive eyes.

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