Contact: kathryn.lepine1@ucalgary.ca
Project 4: Everyday Problem with Arduino
Project 4 focuses on solving an everyday problem using an Arduino including at least one input sensor and output device. Our everyday problem revolves around housemates disturbing and interrupting key focus times such as writing a midterm or interviewing for a job. The anti-disturber detects the presence of a human approaching the door using a PIR sensor and notifies the approaching individual through a light indicating mood by colour that the person inside the room is completing an important task and does not want to be disturbed. The anti-disturber also includes a timer that counts down when the person inside is busy until.
10 Sketch Ideas
Each member of our team came up with ten sketch ideas using an Arduino to solve an everyday problem. These ideas stemmed from issues each one of us faced in our daily lives. Each members ideas surrounded different aspects, however some of the key problem situations revolved around school, working, fitness, car maintenance, and pets. On November 27, 2022, our team had a group meeting where each member shared their ten initial ideas. The meeting was filled with dialogue such as “that is so smart” and “I never thought about that before” as we explored one another’s ideas. A few of the ideas that attracted attention were Kathryn’s time to shovel, Michaela’s horizontal to vertical selfie stick, and Alexis’s no interruptions allows. We conducted a poll including our favourite ideas to see if any stood out to all members of the team. Alexis’s no interruptions allowed idea pulled through collecting the greatest number of votes. The problem this idea solved is one we each had experienced on multiple occasions. Although the project is to create a prototype, we were optimistic we could produce a functional product to be used in our everyday school study routines in the foreseeable future. On November 29, 2022 we presented our sketches in tutorial to the class. The TA feedback was especially positive towards our ideas including wearable technology solutions. Although we thought this was an interesting topic our group decided to remain with the no interruptions allowed idea as it was a problem every group member faced, thus making each member enthusiastic for the next steps.
Google Poll: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeK4X4IAtMB3x2yO_6ZAj5sTHBt_8qvW3QGCs8_cW9rTGSjvg/viewform
User can lock phone into the box for X amount of time to remove the phone from distractions. I thought of this because I check my phone way too often when studying.
Depending upon the time the user is leaving and the temperature outside. The car will automatically start the car in the perfect time to warm and defrost the car. I thought of this because I spent too much time scrapping frost off my windows in the winter every morning.
Compartment storage that shows which products to use on the face depending on the time morning or night. For example, primers normally used in the morning but specific serums used a night. The device spins 180 degrees and opens compartments based upon time of day. I thought of this idea because looking for the products I need in my pile of skin care products gets confusing each morning and evening.
User can lock phone into the box for X amount of time to remove the phone from distractions. I thought of this because I check my phone way too often when studying.
10 Detailed Sketch Ideas
After deciding to pursue the no interruptions allowed idea in our last meeting, each one of us came up with ten detailed ideas and sketched these out. On December 4, 2022 we had a meeting through Zoom where each team member shared their detailed sketches. It was interesting to see that many of our ideas overlapped with one another. For example, we all had an idea with a timer, and idea that included notifying the person inside the room, and an idea including different coloured lights to represent something. However, there was many unique ideas such as Alexis’s chase away idea, Michaela’s barricade idea, and Kathryn’s display what you are doing idea. Throughout the meeting we discussed which ideas we wanted to be included in our final design knowing our design could include multiple concepts from different detailed drawings. For our final design we decided to implement lights indicating mood, a timer, and empathetic design.
When the device detects motion a light turns on. The person working inside the room can change which colour the light is to indicate how busy they are and if they are okay with being interrupted. Red is do not disturb, yellow is only disturb if urgent, and green is come in. I thought of this idea because sometimes I would like people to disturb me and encourage a break, but other times I would only like to be disturbed at urgent news
When the device detects motion a screen turns on showing the time remaining that the individual is busy for. I thought of this idea for scenarios such as writing a midterm where the time required to not be disturbed is fixed.
When a person approaches the door while the prototype is in a “do not disturb” mode, the prototype starts moving towards the person to chase them away from the door. This can be done by attaching motors and wheels to the prototype. I came up with this idea while thinking about a more fun and entertaining way to communicate to the person that they should leave.
When the device detects motion a light turns on. The person working inside the room can change which colour the light is to indicate how busy they are and if they are okay with being interrupted. Red is do not disturb, yellow is only disturb if urgent, and green is come in. I thought of this idea because sometimes I would like people to disturb me and encourage a break, but other times I would only like to be disturbed at urgent news
Storyboard
Description of the Anti-Disturber
The Anti-Disturber is a device that hangs on the outside of a user’s door and warns people not to disturb them, at least, on the stressed setting. The user picks from three statuses: stressed, okay, and happy. If the user feeling stressed, it indicates to the approaching person to proceed with caution. The user then sets a timer for how long the status is in effect. When someone approaches the door, an LED corresponding to the status setting will light up. Red means stressed, yellow means okay, and green means happy. This is a useful device for anyone living with roommates, preventing interruptions when the user is busy and encouraging conversation when happy.
Below is the drawn storyboard.
Concept Video
The target audience for our product is anyone who lives in a household with other people and must complete work that requires minimal to no distractions. This could be a student living with their parents writing a midterm online, a mother taking an interview while her children are home, etc. Our concept video revolves around a student living with their parents and completing an online interview while the mother interrupts. When the student utilizes the anti-disturber, they can set a timer and status. When motion is detected of the mother nearing the door the anti-disturber lights up warning the mother to not enter.
Video Presentation
Our final implementation took inspiration from many detailed drawings we created. Numerous elements were taken into consideration when developing and designing. First, we implemented a timer that counts down how long the person inside is busy until. We thought this was a necessity for the device otherwise the user may have the anti-disturber always on or forget to turn it off; in both cases the anti-disturber would be less impactful if it was always on and the person inside appeared too always be busy. Second, we decided to implement different coloured lights to show the mood of the person inside. Other ideas from the detailed drawings including lights were to indicate busyness. For example, green would be not super busy and red would be extremely busy. However, we felt as though this took away from the main purpose of our device, being that you only use the anti-disturber when you are very busy and wish to not be disturbed. We chose to have the lights represent mood so the person outside the door could be empathetic towards their different feelings depending on the situation. Third, we decided to make our design into a nice-looking monster. In the detailed drawings we had an idea of creating a mini robot to chase the approaching person away and another idea to create an empathetic design to somewhat sooth the person who is being told to leave. Our monster fits both designs in a way, first it is a monster that is made to scare the approaching person away, but second it is a nice monster that is empathetic to the fact they all are telling you to leave. Fifth, it is important to take note that we did not choose any of our detailed designs that included notifying or communicating with the person working inside the room. Although these ideas were good (example, getting a notification when someone would like to enter the room) we thought notifying or distracting the person inside the room was contradicting towards our main idea of no interruptions. Sixth, we detect motion using the PIR sensor as this fit our use case best, other sensors that were taken into consideration were the ultrasonic sensor and IR emissions sensor. Lastly, we decided to use the joystick because it was the easiest way to get multiple parts of input (time and mood) from the user and easily start the anti-disturber.
My Contributions
I wrote and edited all the write-ups. I attached the lights, liquid display, joystick, and PIR sensor to the Arduino. I wrote the code for the Arduino, and dressed the Arduino up as a monster. I was an actress in the concept video and demonstration video. I attended all team meetings and collaborative sessions, during these time periods I actively participated to help group progress move forward. I drew 10 initial sketch ideas and 10 detailed sketch ideas.
