Rebecca’s project has resulted in this wonderful and cute invention. Chatter Pillow’s idea is to send an alert wirelessly to the pillow alerting you of incoming messages coming from the one you love. Now you don’t need to worry about missing that important message, should you switch off your cell.
In her own words, describing the process: “Chatter uses the Plushie Message Framework (chat-parsing script to Arduino to wireless module) to send selected instant messages from your computer to the message pillow. Often times I leave my message client open just to get that “emotional check-in” or other brief snippet from my sweetheart, but I don’t want messages from anyone else. With the Chatter Pillow, I just alter a few parameters in the script to filter all but three messages from him: “xo,” “on my way,” and “talk to me.” That way I can be on the couch or ready for bed and still get the message. The pillow lights up with the appropriate symbol indicating whether he’ll be home soon or if I should make my way to the computer to answer a question. This is my midterm project for Making Wireless Toys taught by Yury Gitman at Parsons School of Design. The PHP script parses the Adium log (so you can use whatever chat channel you like), then sends the specified messages out through the Arduino board, which activates a wireless trigger in the toy. Jonah and I used the Laipac TLP434A and RLP434A wireless transmitter/receiver pair along with the Linx Lical-enc-LS001 and Lical-dec-LS001 encoder/decoder pair.”

Via - Gizmodiva