Final Project Proposal: Chin Wei & Nissa

Mood Bins

Project Intent:
There are two goals to this project. One, to encourage people to throw trash into bins. Second, to
leverage on people's desire to express themselves and influence their surroundings.

The idea was somewhat inspired by one of the Fun Theory projects that was posted at the beginning of the semester. We wondered if we could change people's behaviour positively by making it fun, could we make them to do the same by allowing them to express themselves?

The Looking Out projects and the feedback we've received throughout our development process of our whiskers made us realise the way people interact with our products is what gives it life. We wanted to build a product that was simple and could easily blend into people's consciousness. People throw trash all the time. What if we could from this action "see" the mood of people in the area?

Brief description:
The idea is to install two bins, side-by-side, in a place where people tend to hang out, like a school cafe or study area. One bin would be associated with "Happy" mood and the other with "Sad" mood, through the use of colours and decorations on the bin. As people throw trash in the "Happy" bin, it contributes to the happiness "score" in the room. Likewise, people throwing trash in the "Sad" bin would contribute to the "Sad" score.

When the score in one bin is higher than the score in another bin, the lighting in the area changes. When the room is more "Sad", the lights turn a bluish-hue. When it is "Happy", the lights turn to a yellowish-hue.

Additional thoughts:
We feel that the project presents an opportunity to explore certain aspects of people's behaviour.

For example, it would be interesting

• to know the different kind of trash that enters into each bin. It is possible that the "Sad" bin will end up containing more articles that express frustration, such as crumpled drafts of work.
• to see how people react to the current mood of the room. If the room is "Sad", will they attempt to make the room "Happier"? And in doing so, will it make them happier? Or will a "Sad" room drive people away?
• to see if the mood of the room changes as we might expect it to. For example, would the room be "Sad" during finals?

Possible extensions of project:

• to visualize the occurrence of "Sad" or "Happy" days across time, for example across a school semester
• to create multiple sets of bins so we can map the mood across different places

Flow:

• Sensor (Proximity?) detects trash entering bin
• Arduino updates mood score and compares "Happy" and "Sad" score
• If there is an overall change of mood, change the colour of the light
• Save relevant data?

Logistics:

• 2 Arduinos, one for each bin
• For each Arduino,
• 1 Proximity sensor - $5
• Suitable batteries with battery attachments
• SD card reader? (if necessary to do data logging) - $3
• Wireless light bulb
• 2 trash bins - $6-$25 each
• Stuff to attach the electronics to the garbage bins
• Stuff to decorate the bins
• Garbage bags

Tentative Timeline:

Week	Starting from	Task
0	18 Oct	Submit Project Proposal
1	21 Oct	Order supplies / Work on prototype
2	28 Oct	Finish proof of concept
3	4 Nov	Install on trash can / get feedback
4	11 Nov	Get feedback / Iterate
5	18 Nov	Get feedback / Iterate
6	25 Nov	Test
7	2 Dec	Begin documentation
8	9 Dec	Complete documentation