We have accomplished almost all the reasonable goals that we have set out to do at the beginning of the project. The only feature that we did not have the chance to implement was the audio input. EVA was originally planned to be able to respond to sounds, which would directly affect its emotions depending on the tone of the user’s voice. But such an approach with its complexity could very well be developed into another ECE 476 project.
Other features that can be incorporated to make EVA more fun to play with would be to give EVA a lifecycle. For example, when the MCU is first powered up, EVA would be born and have infant characteristics such as sluggish movements and unresponsive behavior to user input. As the user plays with it and feeds it appropriately, EVA would evolve through different stages and finally die either prematurely due to sickness or with old age. The MCU EEPROM can be used to save state variables so that the user does not have to start over each time the MCU is powered down.
Finally, we built EVA with the vision of a toy that would provide amusement to the user and more importantly a toy with a set of ‘emotion’ which it can call its own. Who knows, with subsequent improvements it could one day be incorporated into dolls and teddy bears for the enjoyment of people of all ages.
ETHICS
Ethical Considerations:
1:
To accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the
safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that
might endanger the public or the environment;
·
We ensured that
the power supply to EVA is low enough that it is not sufficient to cause any harm
to a person. This is crucial since we expect children to be the main users of
our toy.
·
There are several
exposed screws and some sharp edges on EVA, which may cause injury to a user.
EVA is currently still a prototype and we expect to house the whole system in a
soft-toy that fully shields all harmful parts from a user.
3: To be honest and realistic in stating claims or
estimates based on available data.
No information was with-held from users. Assumptions and data can be clearly
seen and read through the code and the other parts of this paper. All parts
were obtained legally either through purchase or salvage.
5: To improve the understanding of
technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences.
Through the use of microprocessors, we can simulate the behaviors of a pet.
This allows potential pet owners the opportunity to experience what having a
pet is like, although in a very much limited manner.
7: To
seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and
correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others.
The bulk effort in creating EVA
involves electrical engineering skills, which is in line with our area of competence.
All other aspects that require skills aside from electrical engineering, were
minimal or under the guidance of trained individuals (friends with a Mechanical
Engineering degree).
Intellectual
Property Considerations:
TASK BREAKDOWN
|
Tasks |
Names |
|
Research on Servos and LCD |
James & Ghim Song |
|
Coding of Servos |
Ghim Song |
|
Coding of LCD |
Ghim Song |
|
Coding of Sound |
James |
|
Coding of State machine |
James |
|
Buying parts |
James & Ghim Song |
|
Assembly |
Ghim Song |
|
Testing & Debugging |
James & Ghim Song |
|
Project Documentation |
James & Ghim Song |