I tackled this problem by first researching common ways to train animals. It seems by far the two most popular methods are positive reinforcement and negative punishment. The concept itself is very simple. Try to get said animal to perform an action. If he succeeds, give him something desirable to reward him and encourage correct behavior in the future (positive reinforcement). If he fails, remove something desirable to punish him and discourage incorrect behavior in the future(negative punishment). The “angry old man” part is actually two conditions in one, as I have to account for his temper yet at the same time keep things elderly-friendly. However the last part of “that grow” is thankfully redundant and can be ignored.

(There are many animals that are intelligent and can be trained. However, for the sake of simplicity and consistency, I chose my model to be the Giraffa camelopardalis, or the common giraffe.)

Sketch #1

This was the first idea that sprang to mind. I attached a shock collar controlled by the wheelchair to animal, allowing the user to shock the animal as a form of punishment for not performing the correct action. Looking back on it, I’m not sure why I did this. It seems kinda mean.

Sketch #2

This solution focuses more on the first part of the conundrum.

Sketch #3

Stepping a bit into the realm of technological impossibility, I created a megaphone that can bypass the language barrier and translate human speech into giraffe speech. It’s a megaphone because angry people like megaphones.

Sketch #4

       

This was actually my idea from the in-class activity. Would you watch it? I would watch it.

Drawings of Sketch #1

   

For my detailed drawings, I went with the first sketch, with some changes inspired from the other three. First off, I did away with the shock collar approach and instead went with the positive reinforcement approach. The wheel chair has a control panel that allows the user to reward the animal by dropping down food or giving it a massage. More features are planned for a future update. I also did away with the teddy bear based on the logic that alleviating him of his anger violates the condition given. Instead, the wheelchair is extra-padded to protect itself from inevitable abuse.

It was fun brainstorming all those ideas for the sketches. I actually had a lot of trouble thinking up the first idea, but after that, the rest came along fairly easily.