This Custom Fat Cat Controller Summons a Mount in Final Fantasy XIV
Using just a pressure sensor and an Arduino, this Fat Cat controller is able to spawn its own mount within the game when sat on.
The world of Final Fantasy XIV
Released in 2013 by games publisher Square Enix, Final Fantasy XIV (also referred to as FFXIV) is an MMO that takes place in a fantastical world in which characters have nearly unlimited opportunities to customize their appearances and items. In order to travel around the maps faster, players are able to unlock or buy mounts, which are essentially animals that can run or fly much faster than a player could, akin to a horse in real life.
Probably one of the most endearing mounts is the Fat Cat, and it got so popular that Square Enix began selling a plushie version on their web store. This gave Louis Hamilton, known as "SuperLouis64" on YouTube, the idea to turn his giant cat into a controller that can summon the Fat Cat in game when sat on.
Electronic components
Component-wise, this build was quite simple and required just two boards to work: an Arduino Micro for the processor, a touch sensor that detects when when the cat has been sat on, and a passive infrared sensor that detects when the player is nearby.
Programming the device
The two readings for the sensors are combined in software which continually waits for both readings to be true, meaning that a player has sat down. At that point, the Arduino Micro's USB keyboard functionality can be used to send keypresses for the fat cat macro to the game where it then spawns the mount.
