We have released a new firmware update! Willi: Your Care Companion
Willi: a friendly companion who listens, speaks your language, and helps when needed. One press for comfort, answers, or SOS so you feel safe and never alone.
Conclusion
Title and Team Introduction
The Global Challenge
Introducing Care Companion, Willi: Your Care Companion
The Magical Five Buttons
Conclusion
About the Project — Willi: Your Care Companion​
We didn’t start with a product. We started with people—our grandparents, a neighbor who lives alone, an aunt who’s nervous at the doctor because English isn’t her first language. We kept hearing the same quiet problems: “I don’t want to bother anyone,” “I didn’t understand what they said,” “I panicked and forgot what to do.” That’s where Willi began—not as tech, but as a promise to make tough moments feel smaller and less lonely.
At first we sketched way too much: apps, dashboards, ten different modes. Then we watched our test users fumble with menus and tiny icons and we realized: in a tough moment you only want one thing press, and something helpful happens. That’s how we landed on five simple buttons. No hunting, no swiping, just muscle memory.
We built the first prototype on a FreeWili/ESP-style board with big, tactile buttons. Red became SOS. Blue was “talk to me” a friendly companion that listens and turns worries into clear next steps. Yellow handled translation so anyone could speak and the user would hear it in their own language. White sent discreet beeps to nearby devices when saying “help” out loud wasn’t safe. Green let you snap a photo and hear what it is, surprisingly powerful for low-vision moments like “Is this the right medicine?”
The wiring was the easy part. The hard parts were human: Simplicity vs. power. We kept asking, “Would my grandma understand this at 2 a.m.?” If the answer was “maybe,” we cut it.
Trustworthy guidance. Health advice had to sound calm and plain, not robotic. We iterated a lot on tone and step-by-step phrasing.
Language is personal. Translation isn’t just words; it’s respect. We tuned it to feel natural and kind.
Offline first. We didn’t want the device to panic just because the Wi-Fi did. Local alerts and simple fallbacks became non-negotiables.
We learned that “friendliness” isn’t a feature you toggle it’s the sum of a thousand tiny choices: the button feel, the way the voice greets you, how instructions pause and wait for you to breathe. We learned that one clear step beats ten clever ones. And we learned that people open up when they feel seen and unhurried.
Is Willi finished? Not even close. Next, we want pilots in senior centers and clinics, more languages that sound like home, and a gentle caregiver view that reassures families without drowning them in notifications. But the heart of it is set: Willi is the friend who stays, listens, speaks your language, and gets help moving so being alone doesn’t have to feel lonely.
Built With​
fetch.ai
freewili
`python``
