The must-have toy of a couple of decades ago was the Tamagotchi, a virtual pet in an LCD screen on a keyring, that demanded your attention and which would die were you to neglect it. Fortunately it had a reset button on the back through which it could be resuscitated, but even so it lacked a satisfying tactile experience. [Nadine] has done something about this with her Tamagotchi-style Tribble, an anthropomorphic ball of fluff that demands attention and purrs when it receives some.
Inside the ball of fake fur is an Adafruit Circuit Playground with a capacitive touch pad and a haptic motor. After a random time with no attention it “cries”, and its owner strokes it, after which it responds with a purring vibration. It’s quite cute as you can see in the Twitter video below, and fortunately it won’t multiply and fill up your starship. We wonder whether a small resistive heater to give it a body temperature would complete its appeal as a virtual pet.
Given the popularity of Star Trek TOS among Hackaday readers perhaps it’s surprising that we don’t see more Tribble related projects. They have made a notable appearance as a DEF CON badge though.
The tribble lives. It has no other features except It just randomly screams for attention until you pet it, and then it purrs. pic.twitter.com/S668rHSq5V
— _n ⚔️ (@_nadine) June 12, 2020
Cute! I have seen the same thing a few years back (or maybe 10?) on a fair in Germany, they sold it for something like 50,-DM …
If the price was in D-Mark, that can’t have been later than 2002, so probably closer to 20 years.
Take a dog from shelter, same amount of time, more happiness for both.
Such thing might be useful for people in hospital or elderly people who cannot have or are not able to take care of a living pet.
get a cat, it does more or less the same, though is significantly more evil.
If this thing eats birds and s-its in a box it’s amazing!
Agreed