A wearable pet to help you relax

Ref is a wearable pet made by Jens Dyvik for his graduation from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Ref is worn on the wrist and helps you become aware of your emotional state by sensing your heartbeat and mirroring your state of excitement through its non-verbal communication. For example, when you are stressed, Ref will raise its head and tail. Then as soon as you relax Ref will curl up its tail and lower its head again. The idea is that by literally objectifying your emotions Ref coaches you regain control instead of being ruled by your emotions.

If you are excited and ready to get a Ref of your own I have to disappoint. Although the project is a great proof of concept Ref is currently not yet very production ready as it's controlled by six servomotors and an Arduino in a box making it somewhat complicated to actually carry it around. But I for one cant wait for the day to see a design like this miniaturised and combined with a powerful battery.

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Comment by Matt Dorsey on November 11, 2010 at 7:54am: very nice. there is definitely a market for such a device when you finish it ;-)

Comment by Jens Dyvik on November 11, 2010 at 7:49am: I focused more on the interaction, design and concept than the engineering side, so I made a "wired" prototype to be able to test my design. I used push pull cables to move the head, tail and wings, and you have to wear the earclip on your earlobe for Ref to react upon your HRV. In the future product will have all the tech integrated.

Comment by Matt Dorsey on November 11, 2010 at 7:39am: that device is baller! is your wearable pet receiving input from the ear mounted device? or did you modify it to somehow read your wrist pulse? also 200 dollars is a bit pricey! are you developing your own tech? thank you for all of your quick replies!

Comment by Jens Dyvik on November 11, 2010 at 7:25am: http://www.heartmathstore.com/

I recommend you to read a bit about the heart rate variability research done by the Heartmath institute. The information within you heart rate variation pattern is very intersting

Comment by Melissa Coleman on November 11, 2010 at 7:07am: Thanks Jens!

Comment by Matt Dorsey on November 11, 2010 at 7:07am: brilliant! where did you purchase said device?

Comment by Jens Dyvik on November 11, 2010 at 7:05am: I hacked a heart rate rariability device to provide input for the Arduino. That allowed to use the exisitng ear mounted heart rate measurer for my prototype. The device is called emWave and provides feedback through multi colored leds.

Comment by Matt Dorsey on November 10, 2010 at 1:42pm: I would like to know how he is measuring heartbeat/pulse.