I turned this ESP32 right into a Tamagotchi no one requested for

My youngsters have gotten slightly obsessive about Tamagotchis lately, so my residence is filled with the sound of incessant beeping. Seeing them take care of their cute little digital creatures made me surprise if I might construct my very own Tamagotchi to cease me sitting for too lengthy at a time.

Despite my greatest efforts, I nonetheless sit for a lot too lengthy

Being sedentary isn’t good for my well being

One of the downsides of writing for a dwelling is that I spend a considerable amount of time sitting in entrance of a pc. Being too sedentary is usually a contributing issue to an entire host of well being points, and even a couple of minutes of train from time to time is best than none in any respect.

The drawback is that after I get within the move of engaged on an article, it is simple to lose observe of time. I’ve tried an entire host of strategies to drive me to rise up and transfer extra, from getting my smart speaker to nag me to a Live Activity on my iPhone that reveals precisely how lengthy I’ve been sitting down for.

Despite all my efforts, I nonetheless discover myself sitting for far too long at a time. I figured making an attempt to make use of a Tamagotchi could not damage.

I wished a technique to visualize my deteriorating well being

A Tamagotchi appeared like the proper match

My concept was that my Tamagotchi’s well being could be a technique to mirror my very own. The longer I stayed in my chair, the extra well being the Tamagotchi would lose. If I stayed in my chair for too lengthy, the Tamagotchi would die, and I’d have to begin over again.

As nicely as killing my Tamagotchi if I stayed sitting for too lengthy, I additionally wished some type of reward for persevering with to rise up and transfer round. I believed that it will be good if my Tamagotchi might evolve if I managed a streak of a full week of getting up and shifting round a minimum of as soon as per hour.

For this to work, I did not wish to know what the developed Tamagotchi would appear like, in order that I’d have extra incentive to finish my streaks and watch my Tamagotchi develop. I used ChatGPT to design the images with out displaying them to me, in order that the one method I might discover out what they appeared like was by finishing my streaks.

A Cheap Yellow Display and a presence sensor have been all I wanted

Home Assistant tracks how lengthy I sit for

I wasn’t going to construct a complete tiny digital gadget for this undertaking, which might have been critical overkill. Instead, I made a decision to make use of a Cheap Yellow Display (CYD). This is an ESP32-based board with a built-in colour touchscreen show, which I figured could be excellent for displaying my Tamagotchi character and the well being and streak bars.

The ultimate piece of the puzzle was including a technique to observe when I’m sitting at my desk and when I’m standing up. I’d already figured this out for my different automations. I exploit an mmWave presence sensor in my residence workplace, with a detection zone arrange that covers the place my workplace chair is situated.

The sensor is correct sufficient that it detects my presence when I’m sitting within the chair and is ready to inform after I rise up and stroll away. This data is shared from Home Assistant to the CYD by way of ESPHome. I used Codex to generate the ESPHome YAML to run my Chair Goblin Tamagotchi, so I would not know when the character would evolve or what would occur when it did.

Curiosity is sufficient to preserve me getting up

I actually wish to see how my goblin evolves

So far, the Tamagotchi is absolutely serving to. Seeing the Tamagotchi get bodily frail the longer I sit in my chair is a robust visible reminder of the injury I could possibly be doing to my very own well being. Since I’ve no technique to cease the Tamagotchi from dying apart from getting out of my chair, it forces me to rise up and take a break.

The evolution facet can also be a real incentive. I’ve earned a few evolutions to date, and it is nice to see my character develop legs and acquire equipment. It provides me much more cause to rise up, since if my goblin dies, I’ll have to begin over again. Keeping my Tamagotchi wholesome helps me to maintain wholesome, too.

AI chatbots make it simpler to make your personal concepts occur

The idea behind my Tamagotchi is pretty easy. It simply displays how lengthy I’ve been sitting and updates the well being accordingly, with the Tamagotchi picture altering because the well being drops. I might have made it from scratch, however it will have taken a good period of time, particularly creating the Tamagotchi photos. Using AI chatbots could make it far simpler to go from concept to completed product.