Outcome

For my second major project in the Making Things Interactive course at CMU I used the Kimono Labs plug-in to build an API from the forecast data from Pollen.com. To visualize this data, I laser cut a nose profile then turned it into a 3D sculpture to hold my Arduino, breadboard and a small squirrel cage fan. I communicated the data from Pollen.com through a JSON format sent via serial communication from Processing to Arduino. The fan inside the nose had a handkerchief attached to it, and the fan would blow the handkerchief if the pollen count reached above 7. I'm currently still iterating this design as the squirrel cage fan I used was not strong enough to emit a dramatic output. I plan to replace this fan with a DC motor for a better display.

My inspiration for this stems from my own experience with allergies and all the time I spent in my allergists's office as a child looking at kitschy decorations and memorabilia collected from pharmaceutical representatives. It was never a fun time visiting the allergist for my weekly allergy shot, and I like to think that had this nose been there blowing alongside me, the waiting room would have seemed a little more empathetic and playful.