High Five Jar
Interactive Product Design
Overview
The given prompt for my interactive studio class was to design and create a low-res functional expressive wearable. It must clearly express an emotion/feeling/desire and have a clear input and output.
I developed the High-Five jar as a way of expressing collecting positivity and showcasing the little happy moments in people's lives.
Class: Interactive Studio
Fall 2023, 1-month project
Tools used:
Soldering Station
Sewing Machine
Coding program: Arduino IDE
Ideation
I experimented with a lot of different emotions and moods that a person can express. Some goofy, and some more serious. Ultimately, I narrowed down to 3 (starred) that I thought had the most potential and design opportunities to express something novel.
Concept 1 - High Five Jar
Concept 2 - Beret of Mood
Breadboard model
First, the bare bones breadboard model was made. This was to test and see if the code was functioning properly. As shown in the video, the LED fills up with each high five.
Sewing the felt strap, with velcro holding the jar
Sewed on ToF sensor, testing out placement of the microcontroller under my wrist
Moving the microcontroller to be sewn on top of the battery pack
Switching to flexible silicone wires; hole for wires on bottom of jar
Wrapping an LED strip around a cylinder inside the jar with mylar
Sewed a felt guard around the ToF sensor
Sewed a cloth cover to cover the microcontroller that I moved to the top of my hand to make sure the ToF is as precise as it can be
Sprayed frosted glass in the jar to make it appear more "magical" (opaque)
Made the hole for wires on backside of jar and felt to better hide it
Prototyping process
The High Five Positivity Jar
Introducing
As I took a stroll through the park, I noticed a stranger passing by. Curiosity got the best of me, and I asked them, "What positive thing has happened in your day?" Their eyes lit up as they shared their story of _______. Excitement brimming, I offered a heartfelt high five. Our "High Five Positivity Jar" began to fill with our shared enthusiasm, motivating me to repeat the heartwarming gesture as I encountered another passerby, creating a chain reaction of positivity that brightened the entire day.
Hover above the numbers to see the parts' functionality!
1
2
3
4
Components used
Unpictured: Anker battery pack located in gray crossbody strap. Used to power all electronic components through its connection to the microcontroller
Walking up to someone passing by, you ask them about a positive thing that happened in their day. After hearing their story, you give them a high five...
So how does it work?
Once the desired (max) amount of high fives has been received, the jar is filled to the brim and unleashes a rainbow "confetti" LED effect, signifying the complete filling of the jar.
Getting another high five resets the count, and starts to fill up the jar from empty again.
1
2
The ToF sensor uses values of distance and time in order to calculate a velocity. If the velocity is above a set threshold (if it is quick), then it is a high-five. If the velocity is too slow, it's not registered as a high-five.
The blue animation shows that a high-five has just been received, and the yellow LEDs fill up the jar "containing high fives.
After gathering a few more high fives, the jar is full...