Week #9 - our first prototype + Hanucka! 🕎🕯️

Hanucka time - Making the Most of the Holiday Break

Although this week was a holiday break, we used the time productively to prepare for the semester's highlight: the Mentor Meeting. We focused on refining our presentation, improving previous work like the competitor analysis, and conducting additional interviews with teenagers in our newly defined target audience.

Diving Deeper into Research

To ensure we’re as prepared as possible and to refine our concept further, this week we focused on reading additional, thought-provoking articles that sparked ideas we’re excited to incorporate into our product.

• One of the highlights was exploring Dr. Hadas Harel’s fascinating work on non-human robots and their role in social interaction. These insights inspired a fresh direction for our product: a robot-like device that "watches" the user and reacts emotionally when approached, creating a sense of "hurt" to establish an emotional connection.

• Additionally, we delved into research on how specific gestures by non-human robots evoke emotional reactions. For instance, forward movements often signal acceptance, while backward movements convey rejection. These findings are helping us design meaningful and emotionally engaging interactions for our device, bringing it closer to reality.

Our First Prototype! 🚀

Although we don’t yet know the exact movements our robot will make or its final design, we decided to take the leap and create our very first paper prototype! 🎨✂️

For the first time, we stepped into the lab, armed with cardboard, utility knives, and a whole lot of curiosity. The goal? To get a tangible feel for how our product might look and function.

Sure, it’s far from the polished vision we have in mind, but this was an incredible start. Creating this initial version was not only a fun and hands-on experience but also a crucial step toward bringing our ideas to life.

What’s Next?

Next week, we’ll meet with the mentors, gather valuable feedback, and use it to refine and focus our project even further. Onward and upward!