Functional Progress

After experiencing some uncertainty last week about how to approach the development of Emily, I am feeling more confident with the progress that I have made. I have managed to use an LDR to recognise varying levels of light, which is reflected in LED's that I was using. Here is some footage of what I achieved:

From that I have also managed to connect a relay into the circuit that connects to the motor that was provided in the kit, which allows for the exposure of light to turn on and off the motor. Ideally I would like to attach a light source rather than a motor, however I currently do not have the required power source to get that running just yet. I am hoping to have the light source attached to the circuit by the next studio session. (The video only shows a slight movement of the motor since I didn't solder it/have a good connection between the two!)

Studio Insights

For the studio session this week, the main concern that I expressed was injecting personality into Emily. I was given some great advice from Lorna and the tutors to have a look at movie characters such as Wall-E and R2-D2 to see how such robots were given personalities despite saying very little (if not none at all)! I did some viewing on YouTube to find that both robots emitted robotic sounds that were viewed as 'cute', which made them appealing. Additionally, they use varying pitches in sound to display their emotions. They are also both short which makes them seem more approachable almost. Such inspiration works that I viewed are as follows:

With this as inspiration, my initial thoughts are to implement beeping noises into Emily, as though she is communicating to the user, similar to R2-D2. It would be interesting to incorporate some type of movement as both Wall-E and R2-D2 move around, which definitely gives them character and personality, however I'm not sure how I would do so. The tricky part is coming up with a way to incorporate sound into Emily to give her that likeable personality!

Future Progress

My progress from here on in is to continue on the development of Emily, as well as make a start on the deliverable that is due shortly. In regards to Emily, I am sort of playing around with the bits that I have to see what additional things I can incorporate. I still am not sure on what kind of form I want Emily to be, but I want her to look appealing and perhaps even cute (like Wall-E and R2-D2)! I do also have to consider that I am targeting an adult based audience rather than a family with children though, so a cute look may not necessarily be the most appropriate. However this is just an initial concept of the form approach that I am thinking of, but may change depending on the materials I can access.