[2025F] Harry Jeon (MS)

Cuddles ANC: Real-Time, Screen-Free Conversation in a Plush Form

Harry Jeon

Date: 2025-09-26 / 3:00 - 4:00 PM

Location: White Hall 100

Abstract

Cuddles ANC is an AI-enabled plush companion designed to speak and listen naturally while remaining truly “plush.” The system pairs a low-power embedded MCU with a cloud speech pipeline (ASR → LLM → TTS) to deliver real-time, screen-free interaction via wake word and voice commands. Our work centers on three challenge areas. (1) Audio & real-time interaction: Latency arose not only from embedded audio handling but also from the server pipeline—especially TTS. We tested multiple TTS engines and adopted streaming synthesis, prompt/voice tuning, and connection reuse to reduce first-audio delay while preserving speech quality. (2) Natural conversation & HCI: To sustain engagement, we added lightweight memory (name/preferences), consistent character persona, routines/streaks, and parental controls (time caps, review, safety filters). (3) Integration & safety: We balanced comfort and reliability—maintaining the plush feel, managing thermals, and using magnetic wireless charging with appropriate safeguards. Future directions include deploying Cuddles as a research testbed (e.g., LENA-alternative studies), expanding to elder companionship and wellness check-ins, and progressively shifting toward on-device inference for lower latency and stronger privacy.

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Presentation | Demonstration