Ambient Notification of Empty Cups

Submitted by Lita Cho on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 00:40

 

Description

I created a way for the user to know when their drink is empty using ambient feedback. When the water is low and the cup is too far away to look at, the user may just touch the heart shape ball. If it is vibrating, the user will know it is empty. The sound of the motor is muffled by the insulation of the ball, so the user is not disturbed by the noise of the motor. The vibration is so subtle that it is visually unnoticeable. However, when the user touches the ball, s/he can instantly feel the vibration and know quickly that the cup is empty through haptic feedback.

Materials

  • DC Motor
  • Force sensor
  • Squishy Heart Shaped Stress ball
  • Post-it note
  • Electrical Tape

Arduino Code

int motorPin = 9; // select the pin for the Motor
int forcePin = 5;
int val = 0;      // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
  int forceVal = analogRead(forcePin);
  Serial.println(forceVal);
  analogWrite(motorPin, forceVal*20); // analogWrite can be between 0-255
}


Images