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  Our Phone

Pull Me Closer

About the Project

Inspiration

This project began with a universal human struggle: my phone was three feet away, and I emotionally could not make that journey.

So we asked an important scientific question: "Can we make the phone come to us instead?"

What started as laziness became innovation.

What We Built

We built a tiny "remote-control car" experience, except the car is your phone and the engine is pure vibration.

You press directional arrows, the phone starts shaking in that direction, and it keeps going until you stop it.

Short version: tap arrow, phone wiggles, dignity optional.

How We Built It

Very briefly:

• Mac app for controls
• iPhone app for shaking
• tiny server in the middle so they can talk

We tuned the controls until it felt less like random buzzing and more like "yes, that arrow did that."

Challenges We Faced

• The phone kept saying "operation not permitted," which felt rude but fair.
• Xcode had a dramatic relationship with us.
• Continuous shake kept timing out, so we had to make it persist like a stubborn toddler.
• Real directional movement from one tiny haptic motor is hard, so we did a lot of pattern tuning and table testing.

What We Learned

• Funny ideas can become real products surprisingly fast.
• "Simple demo" projects are never actually simple.
• Most debugging is 20% code and 80% permissions, settings, and vibes.
• If people laugh and instantly understand the demo, you are doing it right.

What We Are Proud Of

• We turned peak laziness into a working, interactive demo.
• It works live, in real time, with actual direction control.
• We survived the setup chaos and still shipped.

What Is Next

• Better calibration for different tables (wood, glass, "mystery cafeteria material").
• Maybe make it a lil faster? :)
• Maybe one day: autonomous "come to me" mode.

Built With

• node.js
• swift
• xcode