Miaow
“Miaow” is an Interactive Arts and Design project with an ultrasonic sensor for interacting with a “cat”. This project is for people who would like to have a pet but cannot due to different reasons. It is a simple human-screen interaction design with which people can have simple interactions with the “cat” shown on the screen.
Team
Ines Yin, Rita Ruan, Wendy Zhuang
Ines Yin, Rita Ruan, Wendy Zhuang
Mentor
Duration
Sept. 2018 - Dec. 2018
My Contribution
Secondary Research
Storytelling
Coding
Testing
Video Filming
Video Editing
Web Design
01
Background
Since many people would like to have a pet but due to the reasons like cat allergies or not being permitted by parents, they cannot own one. This project aims to provide an opportunity for this group of people to experience the feeling of interacting with a cat.
02
Secondary Research - Literature Review
Some research papers and design project are reviewed. It is shown in the previous literature that owning a pet can fulfill people's basic psychological needs of relatedness and companionship, which improves people's well-being. There're projects like PotPet that can let people experience the fun of keeping pets, but those projects lack some interactive features like visual and auditory interactions.
03
Primary Research - Storytelling
I have conducted storytelling with cat owners and people who cannot own a pet to share their stories with cats.
"My cat is a bit afraid of strangers. But if someone feeds it delicious food, it will be willing to get close." - Owners Z & W.
“I'm allergic to cats, but I think cats are cute.“ - Non-owner Y.
“My parents don't allow me to have pets, but I like playing with my friends' pets. I do wish to have my own pet one day." - Non-owner X.
04
Ideation, Prototyping, Testing
I brainstormed based on the research findings. A concept of interacting with the "cat" shown in 3 different video clips that makes use of an ultrasonic sensor to detect people's distances was developed, and its relevant logic was clarified during my ideation process. Based on my idea, my teammate and I shot videos, built a prototype and tested it with some potential audiences.
05
Final Design Outcome
An interactive experience between people and the "cat" (in the form of video clips) has been developed. The "cat" will have different reactions to the distances of people, and people can alter the reaction of the "cat" by pressing a button when getting closer.
People's feedback on the experience was relatively positive and thought that this design has the potential to be further developed and put into market for use.
06
Other Information
The cat in our project is called Lil Fat, which is our teammate Wendy's little boy.
For more details of the codes and the support paper, please refer to the website Rita and I built for the project.