Arduino in the hands of designers

Recently, in the British Higher School of Design was the preliminary protection of projects on the course of industrial design. Students presented the concepts of smart devices projects that will be brought to the mind, namely, to readiness for mass production.

Somehow, by itself over the last year or a half, there was a friendship between the British and Amperka . And Amperku was invited to the defense, for which many thanks. We gladly came, looked, pofotkali. I want to share with you what I saw. I found the projects extremely interesting from the point of view that they do not pretend to be hardcore about e-stuffing and programming, but the result is still interesting, fun, utilitarian things. And all because before the implementation of the analysis of existing problems of life and were elegant ways to solve them.

I present to your attention a short review of 9 projects that were presented at the defense.
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Egg tray

Problem: On chicken eggs do not write the date of production. New eggs arrive in the fridge and the existing ones are removed. It is difficult in the end to understand which eggs are already rotting and which ones can still be eaten.

Solution: Advanced egg tray. As soon as the egg enters the cell, an individual timer starts. After two weeks, the indicator near the cell changes color, symbolizing the problem with the egg.

Multiple trays can be latched together. In this case, the control electronics is necessary only in one of them: the addition of additional trays from the electronics point of view is simply the addition of another shift register to the cascade.

Since It is not so easy for an ordinary user to get food inside the refrigerator, an elegant solution has been invented. The device is powered by a battery, which is made in the form, you guessed it, of a chicken egg and put it simply in one of the holes. The energy-egg is actually a “kinder surprise” inside which standard batteries are placed. Benefit microcontroller most of the time you do not need to do anything, and fuss only when the refrigerator door opens and the light turns on.

Data on freshness can also be learned from a mobile device, being, say, in a store.

Pencil sorter

Problem: After the artist or designer works, an unsystematic pile of pencils and felt-tip pens of different colors is arranged on the table, which are very dreary to put into place, keeping the gamma.

Solution: A device where you can load all the pencils in one heap, and it will sort out their colors and arrange them into the correct palette.

The device is based on a color sensor ; the gate on the basis of the stepper motor , which serves pencils one by one; and a movable stand, controlled by another footstep with a worm gear, which becomes opposite to the currently needed compartment.

We have, unfortunately, only a photo. In dynamics, the work of the prototype looks exciting.

iCat

Problem: When the mistress is at work, and the cat is at home, they are depressed and they miss each other.

Solution: Lightweight mobile robot with camera and laser. Cats love to play with a moving laser spot, this is known, and being able to observe this process from the office through the camera will delight the host.

Simple commands to activate the game mode, the device receives through Twitter. The movement of the bot itself occurs autonomously, according to the sensors on board. Video from the camera can be obtained via Skype: this way you do not need to do additional software and you can have fun both from the desktop and from a mobile device.

For the robot, the 2-wheeled chassis with yellow wheels well-known to the Arduins are quite suitable. It remains only to embody an aesthetic casing that will cover the wheels, securely hold the periphery and please the eye.

AR: Arduino Pot

Problem: Different types of tea need to be brewed in water of different temperatures at different times. It’s lazily to keep track of these options manually.

Solution: A teapot with which you can specify which tea we are going to brew. The kettle will give a signal when the water has taken the desired temperature and you need to fill the tea and then notify you with sound and color that everything is ready for tea drinking.

As a result of a long search for a new form: from the standard for juices and milk to the ideal disc without a handle and spout, a simple but unusual and at the same time functional form was chosen. All electronics is hidden in the handle. Three buttons for selecting the type of tea are displayed outside: black, green, white, and LED indicators.

Lawn for cat

Problem: Cats always need fresh water and grass for proper digestion. And constantly supplying them manually tedious.

Solution: Eco-friendly drinking trough with water recirculation and micrograined fresh grass.

Arduino , pump and sensors maintain the correct microclimate for grass growth; and also from time to time provide replacement of water in the drinking trough, driving it through the filter. In order for the grass to grow better, phytolamps are switched on in low light conditions. On the prototype, their role so far is played by 5-mm LEDs.

Making fire

Problem: Conventional switches and dimmers are boring.

Solution: Include lighting in the room or an electric fireplace with elements of primitiveness. The more active the three "silicon", the more "fire" we get.

The device is based on several capacitive touch panels, and the microcontroller monitors their rubbing.

Musical Octopus

Problem: Music is movement, movement is life; in life there is not enough music.

Solution: A music player that plays when the owner moves, and the track depends on the dynamic movement.

Arduino, Wave Shield and accelerometer do the trick. All electronics will be located inside a cute monster with teeth from el-Wire and tentacles with suction cups magnets. Such a friend can be easily mounted on the frame of the bike or, say, on the shoulder, when you paint the walls.

Not that this device is super-necessary in our everyday life, but the demonstration of its prototype was one of the most groovy. I personally live in a place where there is a large congestion of cyclists, and what kind of cycle frets I do not meet. I am sure that such a device would find its consumer among them.

Color pyramid

Problem: Children do not know what color is obtained by mixing the other two. Designer children should know this :)

Solution: Classic children's pyramid, the elements of which sum their color with the color of a neighboring element or another object.

A color sensor, a microcontroller, several pieces of RGB tape and a long form search process led to the prototype that was being demonstrated.

Saucepan automat

Problem: When cooking food should be filled up when the water boils at different times so that they are ready at the same time.

Solution: A rotatable bottom container lid allows up to 3 ingredients to be placed in it. As soon as the water boils, the contents of the first compartment will be dumped into boiling water. The remaining 2 compartments will fall into the broth with established delays a little later.

A boil of water captures the DS18B20 + sensor. Next, the microcontroller sends the necessary signals to the finisher, which directs the hole in the lid to the desired sector. After the contents are in boiling water, the motor parks the hole in the initial position so that the water does not boil away.

Such is the story

Students before the summer have yet to solve a lot of issues related to the optimization of the production of buildings and electronics. Surely, many will abandon xduino in favor of raw MKs, someone will have to reevaluate the form factor, but somehow the prototypes seemed to me quite curious and viable. I want to wish them all success and a great future.

Personally, I really liked a couple of projects, just as a potential consumer. And they appear on Kick-Starter in the summer, I will definitely invest my 5 kopecks in their appearance on the market, because they are cool and I want these.

And what seemed curious habrachitelemi?