Sunshine is a robot designed to provide a positive interaction to the elderly early in the morning. Sunshine aims to give the user an enjoyable experience as the first interaction to replace the common habit of making coffee and then consuming mainstream news outlets. The existing patterns commonly leave their participants in a worse state before the participants engaged which is an even worse outcome when loneliness in the elderly is at an all-time high. Sunshine aims to make the lives of the elderly population a little bit bright at the beginning, so that the user may carry a bit of sunshine throughout the day.
Sunshine is functionally and formally similar to a traditional coffee maker. Using a sensor to detect when a mug has been placed on the tray to know when to turn on, and a one-button panel to being the coffee-making process. Sunshine then uses the exposed robot arms to present the tray with coffee to the user. After the coffee is prepared, Sunshine uses an attached printer to print a small slip containing: quotes, puzzles, questions, etc. Finally, the slip can be held and read or the back can be peeled off and stuck on a travel mug in order to be taken on the go.