Physical Computing - Student Work

As an introduction to product and interaction design, our physical computing unit involved creating a product utilising hardware platforms such as an Arduino to create an interactive product that nurtured mindfulness and wellbeing habits in users. This meant assembling prototypes with LED light strips and wiring together circuitry to function in using code written to an Arduino. This was a group project where I came up with the core concept of a desktop Zen Garden that is modulated in some way by the user’s current emotional state. I created a 3D model of the housing of the garden and built the prototype model out of timber and model train set materials. I then iterated on the 3D model to come up with the final design.

The final design is a small garden with sand that can be raked and a green tree; this sits atop a housing of laser-cut timber and clear acrylic that contains the Arduino hardware, batteries and sensors required for interaction. LED strip lights shine through and are diffused by the acrylic layers of the housing.

The main interaction is connection with a heart-rate sensor wearable via bluetooth that records the user’s stress level based on heart rate and modulates the hue of the LED strip, using colour theory to calm the user.