My initial idea — a reactive companion that reacts to my voice and feels like a friend –– lead me all the way around to my dream. Of the intelligent objects I've had in my apartment, which include a Google Assistant and a Neato Robot Vacuum, I realized that the most anthropomorphic, reassuring, and 'polite' was a voiceless mylar balloon that bumped into me outside my apartment door; it had escaped the downstairs birthday party. Me and my roommate let it into the house... I hid from it on the first day, after the discovery of its curious nature. The balloon inquired into every closed door. Intrusive and effective.

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I had dreams of controlling the movements of the balloon, putting it outside my window so that it could redirect sunlight into my small apartment. Today I'm going for it, though I have changed the design :

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Parts Needed

Arduino Uno 33 iot

3X Solar Panels

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2X Servo Motor

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2X Relays

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Mylar strips

Build

  1. 3X Solar Panels, Arduino, 2X servo motors housing
  2. The servos control two wires which raise the mylar mesh, the first wire controls the loop at the 'top' and the second controls the wire at the bottom. I'll have to do a lot of configuring to understand where the two wires need to be to create an angle that brings sunlight into the space.
  3. The right-most loop (at any point) will hook to the other side of the window to create tension / hold shape.