PetLock – CSE Senior Design

Team Name

Quaranteam

Timeline

Summer 2020 – Fall 2020

Students

De’Aun (Carolyn) Johnson
Olivia Spencer
Bridget Krone
Nihal Kumarswamy
(Former) Ujit Adhikari

Abstract

PetLock is a project designed as a method to teach the value of token economy and to teach children how to handle responsibilities. Presented in the form of a chore app controlled by parents, it allows them to have a centralized place to keep track of their children’s chores with the addition of an unlockable game for children to play afterwards. By working through and completing all the chores, children understand how to care for their surroundings and form a sense of pride from working through their tasks. By also having an unlockable game that is task associated with token currency, it gives the children a reward to look forward to at the end of the day. The game builds on the teaching of responsibilities by enabling children to take care of a virtual character by means of tasks and using currency to teach economic values. These skills, though masked as a game, demonstrate important life lessons for children to learn so they can make tactical and observant decisions in the future to come.

Background

The team was presented with the opportunity to create an app that is unique and currently not present in the U.S. market for mobile applications. As of now, the dependency on technology specifically mobile devices has grown immensely, but as people, especially children, have become more reliant on them and they can lose touch with key skill development. Seen by many parents, children tend to prefer their devices rather than taking on responsibilities so what better way to help them developing new skills than an app. The initial idea came from one of the developer’s family members who wanted a way to teach their children to complete their chores and understand the value of them without making it feel taxing. They noticed their children spent a majority of the day on their mobile devices, not wanting to wary away from them. Since this began to be an issue in their household, the parent wen about researching extensively about the problem and came to the realization there was nothing that tackles this problem in U.S. mobile app stores. Thus that is when the team was asked to develop one.

The preliminary customer was the family member, however, later expanded to parents who are looking for a way to educate their children and make daily chores more enjoyable for them. The decision to expand was due to realizing how valuable such an app would be to parenting as many more parents have come to support the idea. Though the app is created as a means for parents to regulate their child’s activity and screen time, the team must keep in mind the other half of the target audience, the children. As they will be the ones who are interacting with the app the most, it is important they enjoy using it and understand the significance of their responsibilities and monetary value whether directly or indirectly; this is where the game aspect comes to play. Hence the app covers a range of customers, each receive something different from the app and have the ability to interact with it differently.

Project Requirements

1. The system shall utilize a RealTime Database to handle all data communication across different devices.
2. The system shall allow an adult to register and create an account with an email and password.
3. The system shall allow an adult to register and create an account for a child with their child’s name.
4. The system shall allow an adult to create and assign chores to children linked to their account.
5. The system shall allow a child to complete a chore and POST a completion check that will show up on the adult’s account.
6. The system shall allow adults the option to either approve or reject the chore completion. On approval, the system will send the child in-game rewards, but on rejection, the child must redo the chore.
7. The system shall allow the child to play the avatar game once the child finishes all chores with approval status.
8. The system shall allow the child to play the avatar game for the time they earned for completed chores. Once the time has ended, the system shall return to the chore list.
9. The system shall save the child’s avatar game status upon exiting the game.
10. The system shall operate on any iOS devices.

System Overview

The architectural structure of the application is comprised of four main layers: the Data Manipulation Layer, the Parent Layer, the Child Layer, and the Game Layer. These subsystems represent the unique features and functionalities each layer is capable of performing. Each layer also contains a “connection” subsystem that allows them to interact with each other and process information from the Data Manipulation Layer, the layer containing a connection to the database.

Results

A demo video of our PetLock mobile app can be seen below:

Future Work

One of the developers on our team will be continuing to improve PetLock and implement more requirements, such as the ones listed below:

1. The system shall allow a child to POST a completion chore check with an image to the adult account.
2. The system shall allow a child to enter the games and use partially earned allotted time for completed chores.
3. The system shall allow the adult to comment on POST chore approval/disapproval statuses with notes to provide the child with feedback.
4. The system shall allow the child to have more interactive features with their avatar, such as food, hygiene, and decorations.
5. The system shall allow the virtual avatar to have different emotions for various levels of provided care.
6. The system shall have additional microgames added for the child to play, such a bath microgame, food microgame, laser tag microgame, and race microgame.