Design Concept

After a few experiments of sensor using, I got a clear knowledge about how the sensors work in Arduino. Review Charles Darwin’s book: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. The expression of the emotion depends on the evolutionary level of animals through animals’ muscles, reflex action and habits. Lizard is one kind of lower level animals. It is not easy to identify an exact emotion to evoke a certain feeling synthetically, but focus on his writing about lizard in his book (see previous post), perhaps some interesting emotions can be transferred to an entity/organism in flash. These emotions can make a happen by lizard’s reflection and movement through its surroundings or atmosphere.

I am planning to create one of three feelings at least:
1. Hunting by using Infrared Proximity sensor (Distance),
2. Exciting by using Mini photocell (Light),
3. Nervous by using PIR motion sensor (Movement).

To create a hunting feeling, lizard in flash will be carefully moving and concentrate on its quarry. It will be fast catch its food: an insect by using its long tongue. It will use data of the IP sensor generated to control its movement in flash.

To represent an exciting feeling, I predict that using the data of photocell sensor changes the lizard’s quarry — a glow worm’s position or movement. Lizard is exciting to ran quickly and enjoy its food. Its tail may be dancing or vibrating.

To let user and lizard get a nervous feeling, PIR motion sensor is used to make the lizard stop suddenly when a man or big animal coming while it is moving and hunting. After a short time sensitive observation, lizard will continue to move if it fells no risk at all. Otherwise, it will stay a safe place or change its color to hide itself in surroundings.