Minecraft Life Bar Reminds You to Hydrate

We've all been there: you're really into the game and before you know it, the sun has gone down, you haven't eaten in 18 hours, and your body is as shriveled as a raisin. Video game developers design their games to be addictive, which makes it really easy for players to ignore responsibilities and basic necessities like sustenance. The solution is, of course, to fight fire with fire by gamifying your real life. If you struggle to keep up with things like hydration, then you'll want to build this desktop Minecraft Life Bar.

The purpose of this device is to provide a visual indication of how much time has passed since the last time you performed some activity, like eating, drinking water, or showering. It does that in a way that should be familiar to most gamers: with two bars of icons. Jiaqi his set up with the top bar displaying hearts and the bottom bar displaying water drops. But you can change those if you build your own. You can also configure the rate of depletion for each. Pushing a button on a smart phone app replenishes the corresponding meter, so you can stay topped off by pressing that after taking a gulp of water every now and then.

The device consists of a small enclosure made from 3D-printed parts and laser-cut acrylic. Inside is an Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266, which controls the eight-LED NeoPixel RGB strips. The ESP8266 connects to the Adafruit IO service, which provides cloud-based IoT capability. Adafruit IO communicates with the IFTTT service, which provides an app with the replenishment buttons. Both of those services are free to use in this scenario.

To customize the device to show the icons you like, you just need to cut their shapes in the acrylic front panel. You can then configure the NeoPixel LEDs to light up in whatever color makes the most sense for your chosen icons. Select yellow for stars, red for hearts, green for stamina bubbles, or whatever strikes your fancy.

We're not here to stereotype gamers, but we think that this device could help keep many people healthy and hydrated.