Creative Project 1: Home Hack

My project is an IRL flux, notifying the person when it's time to go to bed by turning on!

My housemate has trouble waking up in the morning. I have created a system which will soak his bed with a spray bottle if he doesn't get up.

Want to be reminded to take a break? Want to stretch with your friends on a click? Punkbot is here to help!

I am designing for my friend, Anne. She could benefit from the IoT appliance because she always asks me in the morning what to wear. This appliance would help answer that question without ever having to ask somebody.

Ideally this would be a remotely operable and time-set sous vide machine that is integrated into an electric stove. This would require a temperature sensor, and a photon, and a relay shield.

Cuisinte will have an LED light up to make you aware that you have nothing on the stovetop but left it on.

My brother does not have a lock on his door - and no real way of knowing if someone has entered his room when he is not at home. Therefore, I am aiming to create a system where he has such an indicator, along with a record of how many times his room was accessed when he was not there.

The goal of this project will be to add some light into my friend's life. The light bulbs in our dorm are very old and not very bright, making it hard to see yourself in the mornings. This project will setup a micro controller with a light and an ultrasonic sensor above my friend's mirror. As they stand in front of the mirror, the light should turn on, giving a better view for makeup and clothing.

Everyone forgets to turn off lights in their house sometimes. This device will turn off your lights when you forget to but will still let you use your light switch normally!

This Device turns any mailbox into a connected device by alerting the user via email when new mail has been received. It also has an off switch for notifications for when the user goes to collect their mail from the box.

Recently, the light bulb burned out in one of my roommate’s rooms. So he just uses a lamp, but has to find it in the dark. My hack for this is a motion sensor on the lamp that will automatically turn on when there is movement sensed. When he walks into the room, the sensor will pick up his motion and automatically turn the light off. Once the light is on, it will continue to sense motion, and after 15 motionless minutes; it will then flash blue for one minute, warning that it will turn off.

In both my house on campus and family home, monitoring water usage has always been a bit of a mystery. In many cases at home, my mom has received huge water bills on months even when we were on vacation. This problem was usually resolved by having a plumber or other specialist take a look at our pipes, but the costs were an avoidable nuisance. Using an IoT enabled Pipe Leakage Meter, my project will aim to solve this problem by providing by the minute info about pipe flow to connected devices.

Occupied I have two roommates, one of which lives on the opposite side of the apartment from our bathroom. As a result, there are times when he takes his 45 second trek to the bathroom just to learn that it is occupied. This device will be able to detect if the bathroom is available or not. I plan on putting sensors in the bathroom that detect if the door is closed, the light is on, or if there's moisture in the air. This'll be connected to an LED light that I will place near his bedroom.

What if we could use connected devices to make the restroom experience less hazardous?

Everyone in my immediate family has pills and vitamins that must be taken at regular intervals, but sometimes they miss a day or take them on the wrong days due to forgetfulness. This smart pill tracking system will send reminders to the user when they should take their meds and also keep track of when they last took them, removing any guesswork. It will also track the amount of medicine left in the bottle and let the user know when to refill.

Make your daily shower experience more pleasant with this shower saver. This device will alert you when your shower is at your preferred temperature and provide a visual indication of the time/water usage of your shower.

A system helping you to water your plants by sending alerts when their moisture level is too low. You’re plants now talk back to you. 

Every morning, my best friend Anne used to ask me, “What’s the weather outside? Do you think that I need a coat, or is a sweatshirt enough?” Enter the WhetherWear. Displaying the weather and advising clothes based on Anne’s specific sense of comfort is the WhetherWear’s specialty, and pretty much it’s only capability. In its resting state, the WhetherWear shows a calm breathing indicator, and when asked, it excitedly “thinks” about the question and provides a symbol for an answer!