Presentation Link (6468 KB):

www.sfu.ca/~atc2/IAT404/IAT404_final_presentation_slide.pdf

GreenMo Packaging Box (344KB):

www.sfu.ca/~atc2/IAT404/box_greemo.pdf

[ Dan & Sherry - Soldering ]

[ Testing Blue LEDs ]

[ Wirings ]

[ Measuring the Translucent Paper for diffusing lights ]

[ Our little tool for soldering ^^ ]

[ Researching / Testing with Photocell ]

[ Working Photocell / When flashlight flashes. # decreases to 0 ]

[ Glued & Lined up the "LED holder" inside the box ]

[ Testing out sounds in flash - for photocell ]

[ Our new materials ]

[ Sherry - Soldering ]

[ Soldered circuit board ]

[ Soldered Green LEDs ]

[ Working Green LEDs ]

[ Lining up all the blue & green LEDs ]

[ Filming/Documenting our Process & Judy cutting the corrugated plastic]

[ Programming our sound feedback - MAX/MSP ]

[ Karen and Dan Testing / Trying out sound effects ]

Headline:

GreenMo: Providing a voice to the voiceless

Description:

Greenmo is designed to act as a catalyst towards human-plant interaction through increasing awareness of the plant’s basic needs as well as their level of comfort with their current auditory surroundings.

Logo File:

Open House “Post Mortem”

A. FEEDBACK

1. What are three key CONCEPTUAL refinements you are able to assess based on observation, feedback and use of your prototype during open house?

1. User should be able to create a plant network where the plants could feed themselves and each other.
2. Tamagotchi (sound alarms)
3. More personified and emotional feedback

2. What are three “EXPERIENCE” refinements that could improve the interaction design based on observation, feedback and use of your prototype during open house?

1. People suggested to either use more LEDs
2. Diffuse the light more so it does not seem like a line of dots.
3. Some suggested to incorporate how plants react to surrounding environment as in a book called, “Secret Life of Plants”.

3. What are three TECHNICAL refinements you are able to assess based on observation, feedback and use of your prototype during open house?

1. Brighter LEDs with translucent sheet are preferred
2. Use photocell to trigger when to light up the LEDs
3. Having recognizable sounds

B. PLANNED and ACTUAL

C. SPACE REQUIREMENTS

For the final prototype iteration cycle, we will need to use this space for executing our Evaluation Plan through a user testing session. Spatial requirements include a power outlet that is by a window with curtains and or blinds (so that we can also block out day light to test our prototype in a dark surrounding). This way we can simulate a more realistic environment.

Open House Reflections

James Hsueh

The general feedback we received from the open house was quite positive. The visitors like the idea of how the pot can visualize the plant’s needs and respond to the surrounding area. All the visitors think that using the pot as a medium to simulate and translate the plant’s feeling is logical and understandable. They also thought this innovation has many potential and possibilities to extent. Two things the visitors have suggested us were that regarding to the visual feedback, they were expecting something more entreating and obvious rather then lines of LED. One of the visitors has also pointed out the issue with the power cord. The product would be much more pleasing if it was implemented wirelessly. In conclusion, Open House was valuable for us in terms of cumulating extensive feedback and knowledge from a broader range of people. The process has allowed us to consolidate the ideas from various aspects and also helped us to picture our final form of the design with a clear vision.

Karen Yuen

The Open House event was a great way to see how the public would respond to our product. Several of the guests who approached our product mentioned that they need a product like this to remind them to water their plants. We had a lot of good feedback; many complimented our innovative idea as well as admired the idea of personifying the plant and could relate the idea of pulsing to breathing. During my shift, we also obtained some constructive feedback regarding the appearance of our product. One suggested the use of translucent sheets to diffuse the intensities of the LEDs so to reduce the sharp distinct brightness. We always wanted to fix that aspect since our prototype was developed but we couldn’t think of a way, because we thought the reason for why it was very intense was due to the small distance between the LEDs and the walls. If the LEDs were placed further, a glow effect may have been produced. However in that case, the plant holder would be even bigger than what it is now and would upset its aesthetics. In addition, a guest also mentioned us to look into how Tamagotchis integrate sound and warnings to indicate feeding/care-taking time. I thought this was an excellent suggestion because one of our goals was to take it to the point that users can create a pet-bond between the plant and themselves. Perhaps taking inspiration from Tamagotchi may enhance this experience. However, knowing that Tamagotchi target audience is for children, I’m not sure if it can be useful within our product. But we should take a look at it anyways. Overall the Open House event was a great way to get further feedback, comments and questions to consider. We will be taking these opinions into consideration for our next prototype.

Sherry Lai

From the open house, we basically gave a brief introduction of our project and our team goal to the open house visitors. We described and demonstrated the first phase of the greemo prototype to the guest about the functionality and the interaction of the project. In addition, we elaborated on the future implementation of sensors will be included such as mini microphone to detect the noise level of the environment and respond to the users to not shout at them. Also, we mentioned that auditory feedback will be implemented as well, although no specific sounds or music has been decided. A lot of people appreciated this idea and some people returned suggestions on looking into Tamagotchi’s sound feedback. Another visitor told us that it is true that plants does detect noise and recommended us a book called “Secret Life of Plants”.

Judy Lo

The Open House was fast-paced but very inspiring. It was a very precious opportunity to see the efforts that all the teams have put in. We also had the chance to receive general response for our product. The overall feedback were encouraging. One interesting fact that I’ve noticed was that most people shows little interest when we talked about all the different technolgies that were implemented, but displays enthusiasm when we say that the plant will give users human-like emotions when the user actually talks to it. In other words, the people were more interested in the personification of plants rather than getting the various data about the plants’ health status. We will try to focus more on making the plants more humanized. The Open House has helped us in having better understanding of the expectations from the general public as well as infusing more confidence in our work.

Anne Chou

This year’s open was a great experience. Many people came and looked at our project. Most of the people just told us that our project is cool or that.. it is very cool. However, we did get some useful feedback. One of my favourite suggestion was implementing “Tomagotchi” sounds into our sound system. Because originally I was worrying of having sound feedback from a plant pot might be annoying for the users. However, I have played “Tomagotchi” games before (actually I own the Tomagotchi Wii game) so I know they have do really cute sound effects. The idea just never came into my mind. Thus, I was really happy to hear that suggestion from him. Other than the feedback, I felt our display table was really nice, we had our poster, website, digital picture frame, and prototype up. Our team divided ourselves into two groups (3, 3). During my shift, Karen and Dan were the main speakers. I was more of the notetaker and demonstrator. I basically had to listen to Karen and Dan explaining our project to people, and at the right moment, I needed to adjust the moisture sensor to change the LED lighting effect (from breathing green to rotating blue). This is to show them the stage where our plants need to be watered. After our shifts, we walked around the school and got to check out other people’s cool projects. Overall, I felt I gained a lot from the open house experience and I enjoyed it!

Dan Swan

During the open house I enjoyed explaining our prototype to various visitors. I found that many of the visitors were unsure of what our prototype was because it didn’t resemble a traditional plant pot (which I think is a good sign). We received quite a few comments on ways to possibly improve the design such as making the lights more diffused or modeling our audible feedback after already researched sounds such as the ones used in electronic hand held gaming devices. Also, an engineering professor was very interested in the technical aspects of how our device measures the moisture level and I enjoyed explaining the basics behind our device. However, I did not go into too much detail on possible improvements as we are still in the prototype phase of a potentially marketable product (as mentioned by a few executives during the open house) which may eventually incorporate mentalblox trade secrets.

 Photos

Setup: Poster, Mac, Digital Photo Frame, & the Greenmo Prototype

Dan checking the prototype

Karen and Dan (on right) explaning our project to people

Link to our presentation (844M):

http://www.sfu.ca/~jplo/iat404/PDFs/Binder1.pdf

Midterm Presentation

Description of what was presented:

We remind our audience of our product concept and went on about our process and reasoning of developing our partially operational appearance prototype. To discuss the process, we first describe the software and schematic aspect, giving an explanation of the technology involved and how the electronic components were connected. Afterwards, a design layout of the plant’s structure and placements of elements were presented through an illustration along with several images displaying the process of building our prototype. Following the description of our process, we went onto the Cognitive Walkthrough where we gave a description of our prototype, stated the task most users will be undergoing which is watering the plant. Here we described the list of actions, from pre-conditions to post conditions. Finally we redefined our user groups and stated and discussed the several user feedbacks we have obtained regarding our prototype.

Feedback

• Instant feedback regarding the plant’s moisture/water level
• Align the LEDs neatly
• Integrate the moisture sensor in a more subtle way.
• Make the corners more smooth (don’t want it rough/sharp)
• The moisture sensor may need protection so that if water is poured directly on it, it won’t affect the sensor’s sensitivity

Questions:

• Would watering damage the electronics?
• Is this product water proof?
• Would the structure leak?

Comments:

• You may want to reformat the layout of the electronics to be placed on the side

Midterm Prototype Process:

Arduino, LEDs, Tools, Resistors, etc.

Corrugated Plastic / Pot and LEDs Platform

Cognitive Walkthrough

Prototype Description:

The prototype system is constructed using the Arduino microcontroller and various electrical components such as resistors, LEDs and a potentiometer. It will be powered by a 6V AC power supply

The cube shaped prototype consists of two layers:
1) an outer cube frame made of Corrugated plastic
2) an inner cube frame made of Corrugated plastic that holds the plant/soil and sits on top of a stand.

The Arduino is placed on the side of the inner cube, with LEDs connecting along the walls. The moisture-sensor will be buried within the soil, with space in between the two layers to provide diffusion room for the LEDs.

To implement our product’s features (moisture detection integrated with changing light patterns) we used an Arduino which connects to several LEDs, a potentiometer based moisture-sensor and many resistors. We made use of solder less breadboards to quickly test our connections before hardwiring our prototype. Additionally, the moisture sensor device is connected using alligator clips and wiring that can be quickly reconfigured for changing soil conditions and/or user LED threshold preferences.

Hardware features (for the walk through):

Detecting humidity level in the soil and responding through the LED lighting system.
If too dry: Light pattern changes (rotate).

Task Description:

For the walkthrough, we will be focusing on the task of watering the plant. The task is initiated by the changing of LED light pattern. The humidity sensor constantly monitors the moist level and gives appropriate feedback through the LEDs. In this case, the light pattern changes from its usual pulsing light into a rotating pattern. The change is distinct enough for the user to notice, thus prompting an appropriate action from the user (watering the plant). When that has been done, the light pattern will return to it normal pulsing pattern.

List of Actions:

PRECONDITION:
Plant owner has seen the prototype’s usual light pattern – pulsing glow
The plant’s soil is dry
The prototype is powered on

LIST OF ACTION:

1. Plant owner enters the room
2. Prototype displays a rotating LED light pattern
3. Plant owner waters the plant
4. Prototype changes rotating light pattern to pulsing pattern

POST-CONDITION:
The prototype is watered to the appropriate moisture level and the prototype’s lighting pattern is back to its normal state – pulsing glow

User group:

This product focuses on young adult individuals and/or families who are seeking for and/or intrigued by a different type of interaction with plant. This particular task is designed for this specific group for their rather busy lifestyle. Our user group tends to forget or ignore watering the plants. Therefore, this feature allows the plant to get more attention from the users.