Love Messengers

An open-source electronics project and workshop series to send little love messages across the world.

Teaching

Siggraph (2x)
Parsons Dorkshops
NYC Resistor (3x)

Publications

Siggraph Podcast
Peer Reviewed Paper (ACM)

Collaborators

Pepi Ng

Documentation

Github (Code, Files, Instructions)

Timeline

2022 - 2025

Tech

Google Firebase, Firebase Client, C++, Electronics

Click on the buttons of the Love Messengers!

A photograph of a black 3D printed Love Messenger with a translucent heart in front of a dark background.

A photograph of a black 3D printed Love Messenger with a purble glowing heart in front of a dark background.

A photo of a Love Messenger with a black 3D printed body and a translucent heart in front of a dark background.

A photograph of a Love Messenger with a black 3D printed box and a orange glowing heart in front of a dark background.

What are Love Messengers

Love Messengers is an open-source project and workshop series in which participants build two IoT devices - the Love Messengers - that are connected to each other via a real time database. When one Love Messenger is pressed, the other will light up, no matter how far apart they are.

How do they work?

Two microcontrollers with wifi capabilities exchange data in real time via Google's Firebase service. Users input data via a pushbutton, and receive feedback via an LED.

Teaching accessible workshops

Pepi and I taught Love Messengers in a series of workshops across New York City and the US. To keep workshops as accessible as possible, all workshops are free of cost and beginner friendly. There are currently more than 150 individual Love Messengers from our workshop participants distributed around the world.

A photograph of about 15 people sitting on tables during the Love Messengers workshop

Siggraph

Workshop at

A photograph of four participants sitting on a table with their laptops open.

Parsons

Workshop at

A photograph of two participants soldering on a table filled with wires, chargers and equipment.

NYC Resistor

Workshop at

How to get involved

Want to build your own Love Messengers? Find our original Youtube tutorial below, or find all class materials on our most recent Github page. Please feel free to reach out with questions or suggestions!

The Process

This whole project started as a fun Youtube tutorial during summer break - we never thought we would continue iterating on it for more than two years! We are incredibly grateful for all participants of our workshop and the lovely venues that host us.

A hand holding multiple pre-soldered colorful buttons like a flower bouquet.

... flower bouquet of momentary pushbuttons 💐

A photograph of two people soldering a button together on a table.

... testing the workshop materials at home

A photograph of a person cutting wires with pliers on a desk.

... more testing!

A photograph of a person soldering a button on a green mat, while taking a picture with a camera

... capturing content for our class materials

Special Thanks To‍

Pepi Ng, Buoy Studio for the initial inspiration, Johnathan Cohen and our fellow presenters at Siggraph, the amazing staff at NYC Resistor especially Kari Woody Winston and Guillaume, Grace Park for the beautiful poster design, and Aiyo Cheboi for helping us!

Love Messengers

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