A Tamagotchi'd Gourd
Elijah Horland creates what may be the world’s first digital pet made out of an actual pumpkin.
Halloween 2020 has come and gone – though one might argue that the general scary and spooky ethos has been going on all year – and to celebrate, Elijah Horland decided to create an electronic pumpkin. Unlike most hacked “pumpkins” you’ve seen here and elsewhere, Horland isn’t using a plastic representation of a jack-o'-lantern, but an actual orange gourd that he first has to carve and de-slime before installing the hardware.
With that job done, he was able to embed an Arduino Mega running Tamaguino, a Tamagotchi clone program. This, along with a screen and stem cutout buttons on front of the pumpkin, turns it into a Tamagotchi-like virtual "pet” that you have to keep alive. He's named this creation a “Kaboguino” based on the Japaneese word for pumpkin, kabocha. Keeping it happy means “feeding” and “disiplining” it, though in the end, one might assume its ultimate demise will be the organic exterior.
The device also features a speaker and googly eyes for extra fun, and the electronics are sealed inside to hopefully keep them dry until it degrades. A USB port in the back allows it to be powered via a portable USB source, or even plugged in, meaning you don’t actually have to reach inside when power runs out.
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!