Brat Tracker is a small, wooden device that can be used to track a number on individuals (specifically cats) and how many times they have been fed. While the device displayed is to be used for feline brats, it could also be adapted to be used to keep track of: roommates, children, co-workers, or general family members. This device allows for easy tracking of who is home and who is away. The name plates have small magnet attached to their backs so that they can be secured beneath their name when they are present, and then be placed on the bottom of the tracker, where more magnets are installed, so that they can be secured when not in use.
The process for Brat Tracker's creation was relatively streamlined. In the beginning, I created a rough sketch of what I wanted the device to look like, a designed that mostly stayed consistent through each phase of development. What did change, however, was how the feeding amount was displayed and the name plates for all 3 cats. In the beginning, the feeding counter was to be constructed using an arduino powered device that could have been used to tick up for each feeding, and then cleared at the end of the day. There were several problems with this concept, with the primary ones being the implementation of this device into the project itself, and trying to understand what to do if the project got knocked off of the wall and was broken. By the end, the digital counter was replaced by simple, small dry-erase boards. The name plates also evolved over the course of creation, beginning as simple wooden name plates with small holes carved out of them so that they could be secured by being placed on pegs, to having magnets installed on the back of them so that they can be placed and stored securely.
