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Mood-Aware Interactive Pet System with Sensor Fusion and Wireless Interactions
Lucina-Sienna is a sensor-driven, emotionally responsive pet simulation system running on embedded devices. Each “pet node” is hosted on a Core2 microcontroller, equipped with environmental and motion sensors, a speaker, and a screen. The pet node continuously monitors ambient temperature, light, and acceleration, which influence the emotional “mood” state of the virtual pet. To ensure smooth, realistic behavioral changes, the system employs sensor fusion using a Kalman filter, avoiding erratic emotional shifts caused by noisy sensor data.
The mood affects the pet's actions, animations, and audio responses. For instance, extreme brightness may upset the pet while aggressive movement (detected via the accelerometer) may cause it to “throw up.” The screen visually reflects mood changes through pet sprite animations, while a speaker plays mood-appropriate looped background music and pet sound effects.
A distinguishing feature of this system is its wireless, social behavior model. Each pet can interact with other nearby pets or a centralized base station. Communication is achieved using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), allowing pets to recognize when they are in close proximity and initiate social exchanges. During these interactions, pets exchange personality profiles, which include attributes like mood, temperament, preferences, and friendship status. They also send journal entries that log environmental changes, mood fluctuations, interactions, and significant events to the base station. These social exchanges influence each pet’s internal state, leading to friendship formation or sharing environmental experiences. The result is a fun and evolving network of virtual pets their social behaviors shaped by both their environment and their social circles.
This project is a proud collaboration between Nicholas Lany, Matthew Hoffman and Cameron Woodley