W19 | Invention, Intellectual Property and Income
📝 Assignment:
- Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project.
- Complete your final project, tracking your progress
1. Dissemination Plan
Who is this project for?
Recognizing and managing emotions is something every child is still learning to do — and that learning doesn't happen only in a therapist's office or a classroom. It happens in everyday moments, including the ones where an adult isn't right there to guide it. This is the same idea the project was built on from the start: helping children recognize, express, and manage their emotions through simple, playful interactions, in a way that feels safe and calming. The robot speaks to three connected audiences:
Institutions
Hospitals, schools, and psychology centers, where its foundation in play therapy and emotional regulation techniques can be applied in a structured, guided way. This is the environment the project was born from.
Professionals
Psychologists, therapists, and teachers, who would integrate the robot into existing practices as a tool that supports their work.
Families
Here the robot takes the form of a toy: approachable and easy for a child to engage with on their own. It gives children a way to keep practicing emotional regulation in everyday moments, alongside — not instead of — the guidance they already get from the adults around them.
How will awareness be raised?
Public documentation through Fab Academy (this site), built as a technical and narrative portfolio that can be shared with potential partners and collaborators.
A project summary poster and video, already completed, designed to communicate the project clearly to institutions, professionals, and general audiences alike.
Professional and social platforms (LinkedIn, Instagram) to extend reach beyond the Fab Academy community.
Active exploration of innovation and healthtech spaces in Peru — startup competitions, innovation grants, and university or hospital-affiliated incubation programs — as ways to formally connect the project with institutions that align with its purpose.
Is there a business model?
The path forward is being actively shaped, with a few directions currently being explored:
Direct partnerships with healthcare and education institutions, where the robot would be adopted as a complementary support tool.
Toy-format version aimed at families, sold directly or through retail partners.
Licensing the design for production once intellectual property protections are secured, allowing the project to scale without having to manufacture at large volume alone.
These directions are not mutually exclusive — the next stage of the project involves testing which combination makes the most sense in practice.
How has the project been funded so far?
💰 Access to materials and equipment came through enrollment in the Fab Academy program; additional costs not covered by the program were covered directly. Funding for the next stage will likely combine continued self-investment with the innovation and grant opportunities currently being explored.
2. Intellectual Property
License for documentation
As I started thinking about how to share this project, I realized it needed two different forms of protection, each covering something different: a license for the documentation, and a separate path for protecting the invention itself. One governs the writing; the other governs the invention — and understanding that difference shaped how I approached this section.
- BY (Attribution) — credit must be given to the original creator. Present in every Creative Commons license.
- NC (NonCommercial) — the work cannot be used for commercial purposes.
- SA (ShareAlike) — any modified version must be shared under the same license.
- ND (NoDerivatives) — the work can be shared, but not modified.
| License | Comm. | Mod. | SA |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC BY | Yes | Yes | No |
| CC BY-SA | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CC BY-NC (this project) | No | Yes | No |
| CC BY-NC-SA | No | Yes | Yes |
| CC BY-ND | Yes | No | No |
| CC BY-NC-ND | No | No | No |
Comm. = Commercial use allowed · Mod. = Modifications allowed · SA = Must share alike
Looking at these options, I chose BY NC Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) for this site's documentation. I ruled out CC BY and CC BY-SA, since both allow commercial use — and I want to be the one who eventually commercializes this project. I also ruled out the ND variants, since they don't allow modifications, and part of what makes documentation useful is that other makers can learn from it and build on it. CC BY-NC fit best: it lets others see, reference, and learn from the process, with credit given back to me, while reserving commercial rights for the project itself.
Protecting the invention through INDECOPI
I plan to formally protect the invention itself through INDECOPI in Peru, the national authority responsible for granting patents and other industrial property rights. I am already familiar with the intellectual property framework, and I understand that protection in this case operates on two levels, since the robot involves two distinct elements that can be protected separately:
Industrial design registration
Covers how the robot looks — its panda form and visual identity.
Utility model patent
Covers how it works — the technical advantages that make the robot function the way it does.
3. Project Status
✓ Completed and functional
- ✓ Full system integration: PIR sensor (presence detection / wake-up), and all three emotional sequences (happy, sad, angry), each combining display, LED, servos, and sound as designed.
- ✓ Nextion display running all 12 screens in the correct sequence.
- ✓ Stable BLE communication between the bamboo accessory and the robot.
- ✓ Movement classification across three intensity levels (accessory).
- ✓ Full interaction cycle: idle → welcome → interaction → farewell → idle.
- ✓ Project summary poster and video, completed.
◐ Working, but with room for improvement
What's working / what's not
The system works end-to-end as designed, with all core functions fully integrated. The items above are working as intended but have been identified as opportunities to refine in the next iteration — none of them affect the robot's current functionality.
What Questions Need to Be Resolved?
How will the next stage of the project be funded?
So far, funding has come from a mix of the program itself and direct self-investment. Going forward, the plan is to keep combining both, while staying open to grants or innovation opportunities that fit the project as they come up.
When and how will the INDECOPI filing happen?
The patent filing process is already familiar to me, and I have a good understanding of the requirements and steps involved. As the program is now wrapping up, the remaining consideration is to determine the most appropriate timing for submitting the application within the available grace period. The main detail left to confirm is the exact filing date.
How will the robot perform with real users in a real setting?
So far, the robot has been tested primarily by me, but it has also been evaluated by my local instructor, coworkers, and friends. Their feedback has been valuable for identifying improvements and validating key aspects of the project. However, the robot has not yet been tested by children or assessed by professionals in the type of environment for which it was originally intended. Evaluating its performance in those real-world conditions remains the next major milestone for the project.
Next Steps
Although these activities do not yet have fixed deadlines, their sequence is clearly defined. The main focus at this stage is finishing all remaining Fab Academy requirements, followed by a dedicated period focused on preparing the INDECOPI documentation. In parallel, planning for future pilot testing and the exploration of funding opportunities will continue, supporting the project’s next phase of development.
Fab Academy final review
June 12 — Final project presented to Neil as part of the Fab Academy review process.
Program close-out
By June 26 — completion of the remaining Fab Academy documentation and pending assignments, officially closing out the program.
INDECOPI prep
Following week — dedicated time allocated to preparing the documentation required for the INDECOPI patent filing.
Running in parallel, starting now:
Pilot planning
Defining the structure of an initial real-world evaluation involving children and a professional, representing the next stage of validation following the successful completion of technical testing.
Funding exploration
Identifying grants, innovation programs, and other funding opportunities that align with the project's objectives, while continuing to support development through personal investment.
What I learned?
As part of the 2026 cycle, in this assignment I explored two paths covered in this section. The patent process was already familiar to me, as I had a general understanding of how it works. Licensing, however, introduced a new perspective. I hadn't realized that Creative Commons offers such a wide range of options, each balancing openness and control in different ways. Exploring these alternatives helped me better understand the different ways intellectual property can be shared and managed.