Patronus - AI Pet Companion

Patronus was an AI companion prototype combining a wearable pin, conversational interfaces and separate experiences for children and parents.

This page documents the prototype and the design questions behind it. The original public demo is no longer available at its previous address.

What the Prototype Explored

We explored voice recognition, conversational responses and parent-facing summaries, with privacy boundaries as a central design consideration.

Inspiration

Every day, countless children struggle with social challenges — from feeling excluded to facing bullying at school or online. Many don't yet have the emotional vocabulary to say "I'm scared," "I feel alone," or "Someone was mean to me."

Instead, they turn inward. They can even create imaginary friends. And those friends — though invisible — often become their first emotional support system.

But what if that imaginary friend could actually listen, respond, and help?

We combined engineering and design to build something that bridges that invisible emotional world with thoughtful, supportive technology. We wanted to create a magical presence that would empower kids to express themselves while helping parents understand their child's needs — without breaking privacy or trust.

How We Built It

We built two separate apps: one for kids where they can talk to their Patronus companion, and another for parents where they can receive warning notifications or ask about their child in a chat interface.

The two interfaces let us explore what could remain private and what a parent-facing summary might include. These were prototype design goals, rather than validated safety or wellness outcomes.

Challenges We Ran Into

• Balancing privacy boundaries — exploring high-level summaries instead of sharing direct conversations
• Syncing voice input from hardware and mapping that to real-time avatar changes
• Balancing the magical personality of a pet with its practical, supportive purpose

What We Learned

• A single AI voice, done right, can build real emotional connection
• Simplicity in parent dashboards goes a long way in creating trust
• Emotional tech can be warm, playful, and meaningful when designed with care

🐕 Patronus explored how a playful conversational companion and a separate parent interface could work together.