A Slime Mold Turns Your Smartwatch Into A Living Tamagotchi

In 1996, Bandy gave the world one of his most beloved and nostalgic inventions - the Tamagotchi. If you were a child of the 90s, chances are you owned a Tamagotchi or one of its many competitors. By 1997, more than 70 million Tamagotchi were sold worldwide. According to Bundy, there was only one problem. They found that their digital pets were more popular with children who enjoyed traditional female games. They seem to have lost a large part of the market. They then traded their digital pets for more spectacular, tougher and more aggressive creatures. The result was Digimon, which began as its own pet fantasy series before evolving into a popular animated series (including Digimon Adventure Tree, currently airing on Peacock).

One of the interesting and inspiring stories behind these games is the idea of a pet that you can take with you wherever you go. He didn't require much maintenance, just an occasional feed, maybe a little water, and then a little cleaning. And in return you had a friend in your pocket, something that screamed with joy and seemed to be in the circle of life. If you don't control it and worry about it, you have something dead. You are responsible for it.

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For a brief moment, we saw the possibility of a world where we could maintain a meaningful, if limited, relationship with our technology. Unfortunately, most Tamagotchi have been discontinued. An estimated 70 million digital lives have been lost due to carelessness or battery failure. It was probably inevitable, it had nothing to do with Tamagotchi, and the novelty had to wear off. Also, even the most hardened guards knew in the back of their minds that Tamagotchi didn't exist. He was not involved in throwing him down the stairs. But what if it's not digital? What if your equipment is at least partially functional and you need to take care of it to keep it working?

This is the question Jasmine Lu and Pedro López from the University of Chicago set out to answer in a new paper called "Integrating Organisms for Care-Based Interactions." Much of the work in Lopez's lab is about virtual reality and how we can make the digital world real. They tried things like virtual reality headsets and chemical fabrics to create the sensation of heat, cold or pain. This time they are taking their work from virtual reality to the real world. In this study, they developed a smart watch with a living mold inside. The watch told time and could measure heart rate, but only if the adhesive mold was intact. In short, if you want a fully functional watch, you need it to be fed, watered and happy, unlike the Tamagotchi we grew up with.

Slime Mold Smart Watch Interaction Graphics Photo by Yasmin Lu and Pedro Lopez

“During the project we had comparisons and kept coming back to the Tamagotchi idea. I always had a Tamagotchi as a kid,” Lowe told Vivier. - continued Lopez. "That was the question from day one. Sure, you can do it with a digital structure, but if it's not virtual, does it make a difference? If you look and find this organic product, does it change? Something, it was ours. Bias . From day one, members have been saying yes. People don't seem to care."

Each study participant was equipped with a smartwatch with a cartridge of Physarum polycephalum slime on one side. The cartridge is the container for the viscose mold, but it is also an important part of the watch movement. After receiving the watch, the participants must start taking care of the little macaws. He should drink water twice a day and eat oats every other day. Vibrating alerts on the watch notify users at appropriate intervals.

When the mud mold is fed, it reaches the beginning and grows in the narrow channel of the project. Finally, it reaches the other side and the body acts as a wire, closing the circuit and creating a heart sensor.

"Only when healthy. If you become dehydrated from not giving water or oats, the wire no longer works and the heart rate sensor is no longer available.

From an engineering perspective, this relationship is about communication. When the adhesive form is healthy, the body offers less resistance and allows electricity to flow. As it dries, it becomes more stable and the flow of electricity stops. The smartwatch is designed for transmission level when your slime is healthy.

From a human perspective, something else is going on, or so Louie and Lopez suspect. The researchers were careful not to use keywords early in the study. They never used words like "alive" or "living thing" and made no comparisons to the tamagochi participants. However, the people wearing these watches made these connections themselves, especially in the second part of the study.

Fig. personal growth . Jasmine Lu and Pedro Lopez

During the first week, participants were asked to carefully monitor their breathing according to the instructions on the watch. After one week, they were asked to stop the treatment regimen until the end of the study. They then conducted a series of interviews asking participants about the smartwatch's relationship to other wearables, how it compares to plants or pets, and how to dispose of the watch if necessary.

“People have suffered a lot because of this. Some said they thought it looked like a pet and tried to bring it home. Some said they felt responsible for it and didn't feel comfortable getting rid of it."

- continued Lopez. “Some people have talked about what they're eating with slam, they're eating rye, so they feel a lot closer to that thing than normal electronics. Put them back on the water and heart rate monitor. My smartphone does the work for me, but it never works.

There's something sweet about that kind of relationship. Suddenly, with this element living inside the watch, the whole device becomes more real. They want your property in a way unknown to our normal experience. All our devices can imagine an alternative future where we live. Suddenly, your connection to your TV, cell phone, or car becomes a little stronger. There is an interdependence that is lacking in our modern throwaway culture. When we live in this world, we can take better care of our things and feel more connected to the world around us. We may also find that we are pickier when it comes to shopping. This new waffle maker makes Death Star-shaped waffles, but do you want to make a change?

“I'm very interested in ways of developing new technologies that allow us to question our relationship with technology and foster new relationships. How can the future development of technology be shaped so that people feel interested in it and interact in different areas? Ways,” Lou said.

Unfortunately, the sticky-mold smartwatch probably won't be hitting store shelves near you. The purpose of the study was to explore these relationships, not to develop a consumer product. But maybe it was meant to be. Let's rethink the way we interact with technology. Maybe all those Tamagotchi shouldn't have died in vain.