Fortuna

Meals made by luck, printed with love

Fortuna is a playful, slot-machine-inspired food suggestion system that brings a bit of luck into your kitchen. Instead of choosing what to cook, you spin the machine and let chance decide your ingredients. Once you pull the lever on the right side, the slot wheels shuffle and stop to reveal a set of ingredients. If you like what you see, you can press the “Print Recipe” button to get a cooking suggestion based on those ingredients.

We designed Fortuna as a physical installation using Arduino. The machine’s body was crafted from acrylic for a clean, modern look, while a 3D-printed lever added a tactile, arcade-style interaction. To create a warmer and more sustainable feel, we used wooden buttons, and each slot reel was covered with printed images of food ingredients for a more visual and engaging experience. A brushless motor powered the reel spins, and a thermal printer printed out the final recipe. Behind the scenes, a large language model (LLM) received the selected ingredients and instantly generated a personalized recipe. LED strips animated different machine states—spinning, selection, and printing—bringing the whole interaction to life.

Key Learnings

Building Fortuna taught us how to blend physical computing, AI, and tangible design into one cohesive interactive product. We learned how to bring hardware elements—like motors, printers, and LED strips—together with intelligent software to create real-time, personalized experiences. Using materials like wood, acrylic, and 3D-printed components gave us a deeper understanding of how physical form affects user interaction and perception. Most importantly, this project showed us how playful design and technology can work hand-in-hand to turn everyday choices—like what to eat—into something delightful and surprising.