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What Will it Say About You?
PING is a smart trash/recycling bin that tracks your trash activity and reports it online. His aim is to help you develop better recycling habits by collaborating with others. PING is part of a larger concept that asks the question: "If objects had a voice, what would they say about us and how would we respond?" PING's 'voice' is able to tell users about their trash habits and connects them with other PING users online to allow opportunity for collaboration toward a more sustainable world. PING does this by tracking each time you throw an item in either its waste or recycling compartment and reports this activity online as well as communicating directly with the users through its own illuminating lights. Future iterations of PING will also include a way for the bin to measure weight of the trash, how often the bin gets filled up, and will be able to remind users of trash day so they'll remember to put the trash out. All this data collected will connect to much larger ideas online. For instance, knowing how much paper people recycle can help us calculate how many trees each individual is saving, etc. - allowing each person to feel a bit of accountability and reward for their recycling efforts and help them know that they do in fact play an important part.
Thesis Faculty:
Thesis Studio: Marko Tandefelt
Writing and Research: Loretta Wolozin
Thesis Advisor: Jason Corace
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Domains & Research | Precedents | Papers | Prototypes | Presentations
DOMAINS & RESEARCH
Yeah, I'm building a trash bin for my thesis. But when I first started this project, trash was not my dream. Rather, I was interested in something much bigger: ubiquitous computing. People say that ubicomp and smart objects are the eminent future, but so far most of the work I've seen done in this field is either so far-fetched that it's difficult to see how it can be a practical reality for people, or it only serves as a mere convenience or extravagant thing for people to have in their homes. Aside from that, ubicomp also raises many fears concerning privacy and marketing exploitation. I wanted to use my thesis as an opportunity to explore alternatives.
I wanted to build something that people would feel comfortable having in their homes and that would give them the opportunity to contribute to something larger in their communities. I looked at how this was already working in the virtual world where people openly share information and colloborate every moment of the day. How could I transfer the openness, enthusiasm, and collaboration of the virtual world to the physical world? Working toward a proof of concept to get things going, I had to choose an object I could start working with. Turns out, the trash bin seemed like a good place to start. Not only does this object say a lot about what we consume and how we discard it, it also says a lot about the future state of our world as we fight polution and loss of resources. And here's the kicker - when it comes to trash we're all in it together. We all throw things away and we all contribute to how that affects the environment. Now I just need to get PING to help people realize this...
Select Readings & Research
Bruce Sterling, "Shaping Things"
This book helped me to put the evolution of designing objects into perspective. The world is very different than it was before, and it's changing faster than it ever has before. Thus, the approach we take for creating objects in this current and future world needs to change as well.
Julian Bleecker, "Why Things Matter"
Inspired by Bruce Sterling's ideas, Bleecker introduces the idea of 'blogjects', or objects that blog. What happens when objects can broadcast their activities to the Internet? Bleecker's work helped me to formulate my own thesis design question: If objects could, what would they say about us and how would we respond?
Adam Greenfield, "Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing"
Of all the research I've done, Greenfield's work was that book I was hoping to finally find. His candid thoughts reveal the dangers, weaknesses, and implications of ubiquitous computing that much work in the field fails to consider - or at least doesn't bother mentioning. While most of my other readings serve to inspire me and help me think outside the box, this book helps to ground my concept and justify why I'm taking the approach that I'm pursuing.
Sean Dodson, "The Internet of Things"
People claim that ubicomp will be all about either RFID or the new IP. Here's a bit more about it...
Mark Weiser & John Seely Brown, "Designing Calm Technology"
With this article, these guys basically founded what is now known as ubiquitous computing. It's interesting to see how all these ideas began and then compare them to where things are going now...
Sherry Turkle
Sherry Turkle is an MIT professor who has done an excellent job at conveying the relationship between humans and technology and how technology impacts people. Now more than ever new technologies are exposing human vulnerabilities and the 'self' as we rely on them for almost everything we do. While not really part of the study of User Experience, I feel that as a UX designer these types of implications are the things we should think about more than anything else - especially with ubicomp pervading our lives in the very near future.
Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams, "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything"
While mostly meant for a more business-oriented audience, this book helped me to realize the extent to which the masses can affect goods and services thanks to the Internet and the democritization it brings with it. My goal with PING is to take this collaborative slant and help demonstrate how opening products up and inviting the everyday person to participate in ubicomp products can work to everyone's advantage.
Websites Worth Following
http://www.the-internet-of-things.org/
http://www.treehugger.com/
http://www.greenergadgets.com/
PRECEDENT
A million things inspire me, but not all might make sense to include here. So for now, I'll just include the major ones...with more to be added soon as I continue to narrow it down.
Last.fm
Last.fm is one of the best examples of user-generated content on the Internet (aside from Wikipedia of course). Simply download the Audioscrobbler to track all the music you listen to and then check out what your musical behavior looks like on your own Last.fm profile page. By simply listening to music and perhaps tagging some things now and then, Last.fm can show you what you listen to most, what other bands you might like, others who like the same stuff, etc...Collectively, this info from all the users can show us what our culture as a whole looks like from a musical standpoint. There's something to be said about the nature of simply having data exist and what that can do to people. I want the data collected by PING to do the same thing.
Daytum
Daytum is a new site that allows people to make data visualizations of any interests/activities of their choosing. Basically, it's a site that lets people count the things that they do. It's interesting to learn about a person just by looking at this raw data. I may not know their gender or where they live, but I might know how often they eat chocolate donuts or how many times they've worn the color pink. Over time this data can give us a rich and unique picture of a person. Even more evidence that simple data can mean so much.
Nabaztag
Yes, basically this cute little bunny is nothing but a collection of widgets and feeds that lives outside of the computer. But what appeals to me is the fact that it has a personality that people get emotionally attached to and that it can successfully convey virtual information without the use of a screen or the conventional interface devices we're used to using. PING is the same way. No screens. No special input instruments. People use it like they would any other trash bin...except now a couple of small lights and subtle sounds imply that it's doing something so much more than just collecting your waste.
Papers
The summer before thesis officially started I toyed with the idea of making 'smart toys' for children that, through the use of ubiquitous computing, could safely allow young children to participate online without being glued to a computer. Since then, my project has taken a different path. So I will not be including my earlier writings dealing with my earlier concepts.
Fall Self-Evaluation
After my final Fall thesis critique, I've summarized what I've accomplished and where I need to go from here.
Download PDF [Fall Self-Evaluation, December 2008]
Domains Brief
Discussion of the larger domains I've been researching and how I would like to position my project among them.
Download PDF [Domains Brief, December 2008]
Usability Brief
Discussion of my ideal user experience, including user scenarios and target audience descriptions.
Download PDF [Usability Brief, November 2008]
Impetus Brief
Discussion of my convictions, passions, and inspiration for pursuing this thesis.
Download PDF [Impetus Brief, November 2008]
Core Brief
Summary of early research and experimentation as I worked toward approaching my final concept.
Download PDF [Core Brief, October 2008]
Prototypes
Talk Trash Social Network
Using the Ning/OpenSocial platform, I built a social networking site for my testers. Through this site, I was able to deliver specific recycling information based on where my users were located, embedded a widget for them to input their trash activity (which I asked them to track for 3 straight weeks), and gave them the opportuntiy to watch others also logging their trash activity.
PING: Small Functioning Prototype
Small scale prototype demonstrating the physical computing work needed to make the bin 'smart'. This prototype could sense when something was thrown into either the waste or recycling compartment, would make a sound to provide user feedback, and would count how many instances of recycling or waste occurred. Every bit of data that PING collected was transmitted wirelessly to a live PHP page online via XBee radio transmitters.
PING. What will it say about you? from Katrina Bekessy on Vimeo.
"One Of Mine", Survey and Blog
While working on prototypes of PING early in the semester, I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to pursue the trash bin as my final thesis deliverable. I thought it would just be more of an experiment for the fall semester. So while I was still working on the trash bin, I decided to put out a survery to see if I could get ideas for other objects I could prototype. I also wanted to use the survey as a way to better understand the emotional attachments we have to our everyday objects. I created a survery called "One Of Mine" where I asked people to think of an everyday object of theirs and basically relate a small anecdote of how they see object and how they feel toward it. All responses were posted to the One Of Mine Blog so that others could view the stories. While it ultimately didn't help with my thesis, I learned a lot about how people's attitudes towards their objects.
Presentations
Final Fall Presentation
Presentation for my final critique before Winter Break.
Download PDF [Fall Final Presentation, December 2008]
Peer Review Presentation
Informal presenation given to my fellow peers in the department to receive feedback from people besides faculty or those in the industry.
Download PDF [Peer Review Presentation, November 2008]
Midterm Presentation
Midterm critique by faculty members to make sure that I'm making good progress with my project.
Download PDF [Midterm Presentation, October 2008]
Early Experimentation
Presentation of my early experiments when I was still playing around with concept and exploring the possibility of connecting pre-schoolers to the Internet through smart toys.
Download PDF [Early Experimentation Presentation, October 2008]
Precedent Research
Looking at further precedent to inspire my concept and connect some of the pieces together.
Download PDF [Precedent Research Presentation, September 2008]
Early Concept
First presentation of the semester discussing the work I did over the summer and introducing thoughts about my concept. This was prior to my trash bin being the form of my thesis.