In this task, we were told to create our own Arduino project. This is an electronic circuit board that can be used to create various devices. So first, I'll need to do a little research. I tried to find a few examples of projects people had created using an arduino:
Project 1:
The Tweeting Plant
This circuit has been set up to measure exactly how much water a plant has, and when it needs water, it will send you a twitter message letting you know.This can be seen below.
My idea:
A small room of motion sensing lights
Exactly what it sounds like. my idea was a room of basic design with small furniture and lights/lamps. They're motion sensing so put your hand in and they'll all turn on, take it out, they'll switch off. The basic idea is to have a box, with two windows cut into opposite sides. I will hook up a couple of motion sensors to a wall placed down the middle, and attach LED lights to the corners. When you put your hand in the box, the lights will light up.
I plan to make the project look somewhat akin to a house, making the walls out of wood, the windows out of cling film or plastic, then adding small pieces of furniture, made of cardboard or wood. it won't be very large, 20CM high walls at most.
Environmental impact of this concept (what methods will you use to measure this?)
My product will be a way of raising awareness for turning off lights, and in turn other electrical appliances when not in use, to reduce your carbon footprint. The motion sensors mean your hand will need to be in the box for the light to be on, then out when they turn off, showing that you only need things on when you're actually there, and there's no point keeping them on after you leave.
Legal issues you need to research for this concept
As far as I know, small wooden houses exist, but are not copyrighted, neither is anything else I plan to add to the project. The furniture and small model people may be small enough to swallow for young children, meaning I may need to put a health and safety warning on the bottom of the box
Ethical issues associated with this concept
The product itself isn't a problem when it comes to ethical issues. It is only designed to light up, and turn off, with a simple hand movement. however, the materials used could be used in the wrong way. For example, if it were to be burned, there would be a forms of plastic for the side window, which is extremely damaging to the environment.
Software skills/Electronic skills/manufacturing skills that you will need to learn to produce an interactive prototype of this concept
In order to produce this product, I will need to learn the basics of coding things like lights turning on and off, how to put together an Arduino circuit, using a breadboard.
This is the circuit board I've created with the Arduino to represent how I'd turn on an LED light with a button. That's it. I tried.
So I then tried making a cardboard prototype, here's how that went:
And that's how that went. The actual project hadn't been started yet, but I had a concept and a cardboard prototype. Now it was just a matter of collecting the parts needed. I could put together a box with wooden parts quite easily, the circuit itself wouldn't be so easy. I'd planned out how to make lights turn on and off using the virtual breadboard above, but I needed to put that into practice.
The idea, was that I'd hook up LEDs to the walls along with motion sensors, upon putting your hand in front of it, it'd turn on, conveying the message that when you leave a room (Or take your hands out) You need to switch off lights. The idea could also have been adapted into a toy for children, if I'd made some parts, like a few characters movable, I could have made it into a playhouse type project, with lights that turn on and off whenever the people inside move around.
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