Outcome

Intention: 

Lightcatcher is a product that persuades people to go outside during the time when the daylight is on by dimming each box as time proceeds in the day. Lightcatcher divides the daytime of that day at that location into 6 equal parts, aligning with the 6 cubes we have, and dims each cube as the day proceeds. When the user goes out, he presses the cube of that moment, and it records the time of going out. When the user returns home, he presses the cube representing the time coming back home. The cubes in between will light up during the night. It urges people to go outside more especially during the winter days when the time of daylight is short. It implements the natural materials for the appearance, in order to persuade people to embrace nature more. 

Approach:

We approach the final design with a problem-oriented mindset. As the students who come to live in Pittsburgh, we find it extremely bothersome to have such short daylight during the winter. The night time proceeds so early even before 5 o’clock that if we don’t seize the day going outside during the daytime, we’ll have no chance embracing the daylight. In order to enjoy the short daylight, we have to check the sunrise and sunset time frequently. However, as we are busy, we always forget to check the time for sunset before it comes. Lightcatcher as an ambient device, reminds the people to go outside more by dimming the cubes with flowers in it. The actual natural elements also make it more appealing for users to step outside their home and go out more often.

Context:

• Concept Reference 1: Mui, natural interface
  

In this concept, unlike other IoT devices, it adopts the natural materials for the appearance. Mui adopts a wood board for the touch-screen so that people can feel the wood while utilizing this smart panel for tele-communication and knowing the weather, ect.

Official website: https://mui.jp/en/

Medium post: https://medium.com/@muilab/mui-lab-announces-independence-ee19a54ab4e0

• Concept Reference 2: Lane Tech HS Sunset Tracker
  

This is a product that simulates the sunrise and sunset that uses more specific metaphor-sun to indicate daylight time. It is cute and straightforward.

Link: https://particle.hackster.io/maggari/lane-tech-hs-sunset-tracker-082f4a

• Concept Reference 3: phoneyTV for Spark
  

This product uses transparent matte material to mix different colors together, which creates fantastic color when projected.

Link https://particle.hackster.io/BulldogLowell/phoneytv-for-spark-e7c5b2

Besides, we also implemented the concept of ambient technology for behavior change. It persuades people to change their behavior by displaying the natural elements like decorations in the box. We looked into the Breakaway example (1) for similar design for behavior change like Roger et al’s Ambient Influence (2) example, and also the calm technology principles in Case’s book for our product (3).

Reference:

1. Jafarinaimi, Nassim, et al. "Breakaway: an ambient display designed to change human behavior." CHI'05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. 2005.
   
2. Rogers, Yvonne, et al. "Ambient influence: Can twinkly lights lure and abstract representations trigger behavioral change?." Proceedings of the 12th ACM international conference on Ubiquitous computing. 2010.
   
3. Case, Amber. Calm technology: principles and patterns for non-intrusive design. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.", 2015.
   

Conceptual Design

Provide a high level design overview that considers and describes: what context it operates in ; what it does and how it behaves; how someone would or could interact with it; and how these interactions unfold to lead to the desired outcome? Detail your design proposal with a series of illustrations.

Storyboard:

1. Sunrises, all the cubes light up, indicating the start of the day
2. When user goes out, he touches the cube at the time
3. Cubes dim as the day proceeds
   
4. When he goes back, he touches the cube again
   
5. The sunsets, and the cubes light up during the night
   
6. Natural materials for all parts
   

Video

Process:

 Naturallic’s design process results in design iterations in terms of hardware & software. In hardware, we tested different materials as well as configurations to effectively convey the biophilic feel (of material) as well as light illumination to represent the sunshine. The design iterations involve testing out different configurations of boxes with acrylic, wood & translucent materials (shown in images below). With hardware electronics, different input sensors are being tested to find the best integrated to the system as well as generate great haptic feedback, which results in using a simple button. The short four prongs of the switch made it difficult to latch on top of the LEDs, requiring extra male-female connection. On the software front, multiple code iterations resulted in two different main functions: daylight operations & night operations. The daylight operation function is responsible for light fading through the day, monitoring button press & cancelling button press. Meanwhile, the night operation is responsible for lighting the pressed buttons during the day (code shown below).  One setback we had with using while loops in the code is inability to flash the code - requiring hard wire serial bypass.

Prototype:

The hardware (materials & electrical) & software (coding) design iterations are shown below. Finally, bill of materials of the project is listed below as well.

Reflection and Critique:

Kenny: Working on the software & electrical part of the project, I realized how each function/algorithm or electronics has its own interfacing that requires extra time and effort to understand. In coding the whole system, debugging for edge cases is very tough to pinpoint the root cause of the issue. Meanwhile, knowing your resources really help a lot in accomplishing the tasks. In regards to the product, one of the judges' commented on the fundamental project: finding a more fun & thoughtful solution to the problem like having a 'sunlight-collecting' device that you can bring around. This speaks volume to how important is the scope creation & ideation which we could have put more thought into. Finally, with team dynamics, I'm really grateful to have teammates that can be dependable on working with different parts of the products with clear communication and aligned goals.

Jenny: It is exciting to make ideas come true from sketch to prototype. From the process, I realized the importance to divide the prototype into small pieces so the whole project can be iterated based on that! I really appreciate everyone on the team creating this prototype and leaving beautiful memory this winter.

Chengzhi: From this exercise, I came to realize the importance of having all the information clear and updated in a group and also the importance of collaboration in a team. I learned a lot from my teammates who work hard to make our concept finally come true. To push this project further, I may implement the resin for the cubes and real wood for the base. It’s an intriguing project as we come to realize that implementing the natural materials for IoT device is a new venue to research into.

Hongyu:

Acknowledgements: 

Thanks Jenny’s friend who helped us with the debugging processes.

References: 

• Kellert, Stephen R., Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador. Biophilic design: the theory, science and practice of bringing buildings to life. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
  
• Yin, Jie, et al. "Effects of biophilic indoor environment on stress and anxiety recovery: A between-subjects experiment in virtual reality." Environment International 136 (2020): 105427.
  
• Barreiros, Carla, Viktoria Pammer-Schindler, and Eduardo Veas. "Planting the seed of positive human-IoT interaction." International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 36.4 (2020): 355-372.
  
• Anglin, Rebecca ES, et al. "Vitamin D deficiency and depression in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis." The British journal of psychiatry 202.2 (2013): 100-107.