Colour-changing tea set
Group members: Rowyn, Jeff, Kylie (this is one of two projects we're considering).
While for many people making tea consists of pouring boiling water over a teabag, there is an art to making the perfect cup of tea that depends on factors including water temperature, time steeped, and of course the quality of the leaves. For those of us who aspire to tea excellence but lack professional expertise, it's a trial-and-error process. Enter the colour-changing tea set.
The colour-changing tea set would consist of a teapot and mugs that provide visual information about their contents via shifting colours of light. The teapot could indicate how well-steeped (strong) tea is based on the amount of light passing through the water and the duration of steeping. By measuring the rate of change of light picked up by a sensor, it might be possible to estimate what kind of tea is being made among black, green, and white. If not, the user could select the type of tea in advance.
The start and end colours during brewing should always be the same to provide consistent visual cues regardless of the type of tea being prepared. The rate of change from one colour to another would depend on the type of tea; for example, green tea would reach the steeped colour in 1 or 2 minutes whereas black tea may take 4 or 5.
When the tea is done steeping, it can be poured into a mug that indicates the temperature of its contents via colour as well. Often tea is too hot to drink immediately, so this mug would aid the user in knowing when she may safely consume the tea. There is no set start or end colour; the mug's colour would shift on a spectrum from, say, red to blue as the temperature changed. Users have different preferences for tea temperature; thus individuals could choose to drink their tea when it is the right "colour" for them.
Currently, most people rely on measurements of time to evaluate tea "doneness," usually via a timer of some sort. The colour-changing teapot uses ambient notification to communicate tea intensity, and would be categorized by Pousman as Stasko as a "symbolic sculptural display archetype." (Pousman and Staskko 2006). The status of the tea would be embodied in its containers, eliminating the need for external timing devices and helping prevent bitter tea or burned tongues.
This idea was inspired in part by our labs relating to colour-mixing and light diffusion.
