Keith

The Project

Keith is a small simple robot designed to be an aid to anyone struggling with mental health issues. He is built from a small microbit computer with a 5 by 5 LED screen, encased in a 3D printed case, allowing him to be portable with an inbuilt battery pack, or decoration for a shelf or desk. Keith's interactive nature provides a calming distraction from busy thoughts or difficult situations, and his encouraging messages aim to uplift and soothe.

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Team Comments

Mental health is a prevalent and fast growing issue in our community. Especially following the pandemic, feelings of isolation, stress and loneliness have only grown, particularly amongst adolescents and young adults. This was the inspiration for Keith, to provide fun and comfort in difficult times

At the start, we spent a lot of time trying to implement Keith on a raspberry pi paired with an oled screen, but this proved far too complex for the idea we had in mind. We also struggled connecting the screen with the pi, as the terminal code was foreign and confusing

We would definitely have used the microbit from the very start to avoid wasting time, and would have come up with a solid, streamlined plan faster, as we spent a lot of time trying to focus our idea into something achiveable