Hah I totally whispered that line in the theater when it came out! The Matrix had come out recently so you just couldn’t unsee it.

I second the suggestion of befriending the dog: get some good dog treats and essentially train it. Imagine the look on the neighbor’s face if everyone is outside and the dog obeys your verbal commands. Delicious!

I did something similar. I would get about as far as writing the interesting mechanic/game logic and then give up.

Yes, the circuit in an rfid device gets its power by harvesting energy from the RF source it’s being illuminated with. A smaller version of wireless power transmission first invented by Tesla (the person, not the car company). Similar principles were used in the Cold War for surreptitious listening devices. Neat tech.