“I’m heading abroad for a workshop on facing your fears,” says Skye Meriwether. “Trouble is, I’m a nervous flyer. My cat keeps me calm, but she can’t come to the conference. Is there a technological answer?”
Pets can ease your woes. But they’re not very portable. Ask Dexter the emotional support peacock, who was recently put on the no-fly list. Tamagotchis are an electronic alternative, but they’re harder to hug and easier to kill. Their needy nature is enough to stress you out.
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What you need is a battery-powered buddy that can detect when you’re in need of encouragement. To create one, I started with a heart-rate monitor, to sense when your pulse quickens. I sewed it into a soft wrist strap, adding a long wire so it doesn’t go walkies.
To mimic the comforting purr of a contented cat, I combined a vibrating disc and small speaker, wired to a development board. However, this pile of circuitry was worse than pug-ugly.
It needed a friendly face, while maintaining easy access to the guts of the prototype. With no plush animals to dissect, I improvised with some clothing. Now I had a mewling sock that made me look like a kitten smuggler. A source of anxiety in itself.
So I ditched the animal noise in favour of motivational phrases, grabbed from exercise videos. I had the likes of Jillian Michaels and Tony Horton telling me: “You’re strong, this is easy for you” and “If you tumble, it doesn’t mean you suck, it just means you’re learning”. I performed surgery on my electronic pet to add an SD card attachment, so I could store the sound files.
On our field test lunch trip, Socky was certainly attentive. A flamboyant sneeze sent my pulse soaring, triggering a choir of motivational quotes. Then my double espresso gave my sympathetic sock-pet the jitters. As I ran for the bus, my coat pocket reminded me “Don’t forget to breathe”.
Having proved itself on terrestrial transport, I’d be confident that Socky could handle air travel. Just remember to pop it in the tray before going through security, or it will cause more stress than it resolves.
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