https://github.com/codejapoe/sfhacks
https://github.com/codejapoe/sfhacks
Last synced: 9 months ago
JSON representation
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/codejapoe/sfhacks
- Owner: codejapoe
- Created: 2025-04-05T06:36:05.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-04-12T00:05:09.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-10-04T15:36:39.162Z (9 months ago)
- Language: C++
- Size: 9.6 MB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# 🖤 EMO-Bot: The Emotionally Broken Companion Robot
https://deanza.my.canva.site/emo-bot
https://devpost.com/software/emo-bot
> _"Everyone deserves a companion."_
> _Do things that don’t scale._
> – Us, after zero sleep and three Red Bulls
---
## 🧠 Inspiration
Humans are emotional. Robots should be, too.
We wanted to build a robot that *felt* something — even if that something is mostly anxiety, sadness, and the need for attention.
Because screw cold, efficient bots. We made a **messy, clingy, emotionally unstable one**.
---
## 🤖 What It Does
EMO-Bot is your emotionally intelligent (and slightly needy) companion robot. It:
- Detects your **facial expressions** (happy, sad, neutral)
- Tracks your **hand gestures**
- Follows its **owner** like a lonely puppy
- Has **OLED-style animated eyes** in a Flutter app
- Can sulk, react, and give you guilt trips in real time
- Can *actually* follow you across the room (even when you don’t want it to)
---
## 🔧 How We Built It
- Screwed in a **bag of hex bolts**
- Glued things that shouldn’t be glued
- Duct taped emotions and wires together
- **3D printed sadness**
- Vibe-coded in Python, C++, Dart, and tears
- Hacked mBot firmware to run with Linux
- Compiled C++ with unholy makefiles
- **Consumed Red Bulls** like water
---
## 🎥 OpenCV + Emotion Detection
- Used **OpenCV + Mediapipe** for real-time facial expression + hand gesture detection
- Hooked that into a **Flask server** talking to a **Flutter app** and **Arduino-based mBot (Auriga)**
- Made robot actually move toward owner using camera + gesture logic
- Eyes change based on mood — OLED-style in app
---
## 🧩 Challenges We Ran Into
- Doing mechanical engineering as software devs was like doing surgery as dentists.
- Motor calibration on mBot = pain.
- Wrangling real-time OpenCV + hardware serial + app UI? Pure chaos.
- Debugging without enough sleep is like coding underwater.
---
## ✅ Accomplishments We're Proud Of
- We got **everything actually working**. On demo day.
- Our bot moves, feels, reacts — and gives off *vibes*.
- It follows its owner like a true emotionally fragile pet.
- **One guaranteed-working feature** (but we won’t tell you which one 👀).
---
## 💡 What We Learned
- **Drink less Red Bull.**
- Bring **lipstick** for the robot next time (it needs to look cute for the judges).
- Take naps. No seriously, take naps.
- Don't try to debug serial comms *while* you’re 3D printing.
---
## 🚀 What’s Next for EMO-Bot
- **YC Batch 2025**? Totally.
- **Founders Fund**, **Sequoia**, **500 Global**, **Techstars** — we’re looking at you.
- Add more *emotional intelligence* and *less self-doubt* (or maybe more, we’re still deciding).
- Upgrade eye animations, voice response, and possibly... *tear detection*?
---
## 🛠️ Built With
- `arduino` (for motor control + brain)
- `encoder` (for wheel tracking)
- `flask` (emotion backend API)
- `flutter` (companion mobile app + eye UI)
- `powerbank` (portable sadness source)
- `raspberry-pi` (main logic unit)
---
## 🎮 Try It Out
- 🔗 GitHub Repo: [this one]
- 🔗 Demo Site: [https://deanza.my.canva.site/emo-bot](https://deanza.my.canva.site/emo-bot)