Runan Wang

Blink

What if the objects around us could look back?

Blink is an AR companion app that transforms everyday objects into living beings with voice, personality, and emotional needs. Users photograph a physical object, maybe a mug, a shoe, a stuffed animal and it wakes up. Not as an assistant or a tool, but as something closer to a stray animal that decided to stay: moody, opinionated, and quietly dependent on the person who brought it to life.

Each object carries a unique personality blend chosen by its owner, shaping how it speaks, reacts, and cares. Some are shy and barely whisper. Others won't stop talking. They get hungry when neglected and warm when fed. They track the days you show up and the days you don't. Over time, a bond forms—not through utility, but through the accumulation of small, imperfect conversations.

Blink draws from roleplay community, Tamagotchi-era virtual pet design, and object-oriented ontology to ask a simple question: can artificial companionship feel real without pretending to be human? The answer it proposes is that authenticity lives not in mimicking a person, but in creating something that has its own needs, its own limits, and its own way of missing you.

Project done in collaboration with Sage Rebello MA 26 DE.

Blink

Blink—an AR comfort companion that gives consciousness to everyday objects. Photograph any object and it opens its eyes, finds its voice, and becomes something that remembers you. Each companion has a blended personality, feels hunger, tracks its own emotions, and evolves from new friend to soulmate over time.