Conceptual Design: 

Focus Flower

It’s a focused state facilitator, rewarding people as flowers bloom while they are paying attention to their work for a period of time by detecting the human presence.

It connects people when there are flowers in pairs. When there is a set, including two flower buds and a vase, one bud represents the user, and the other bud represents the user's friend. 

In the scenario that each person has a set of flowers, paired flowers will be synchronized in real-time to show the blooming and glowing of the other flower, which means people are informed about their partner’s focused state by seeing how the paired flower moves. Meanwhile, people can push the button on their vase to trigger the LED on the paired flower to send a “good job” message to their partner.

Once people leave their sit, the flower can’t detect its presence anymore. It will lead the flower to wilt, gradually closing up if the person doesn’t return. Ths state will also be synchronized to the paired flower, too.

We used an ultrasonic sensor to detect whether a person is located within a certain distance in front of the laptop. We initially wanted to get screen usage time or particular apps usage time as the input to determine how focused the person is. However, due to the tight time frame, we chose the more straightforward but effective way to prove the concept.