This idea comes from people forgetting to water their plants, and as a result they often end up dying. In this sketch there is a sensor that will monitor the water concentration of the plant's soil and provide water when required. There is also a display that will show the user the current water concentration, just in case the auto refill ends up becoming empty. We decided to move forward with this design as it seemed the most interesting to as, and we could modify it in a variety of ways, there were multiple different features we could expand upon in an automated system for taking care of a plant.

In this sketch the user is wearing glasses, the user then looks at a food item through the glasses and it will display to the user what type of food it is, an estimated amount of calories, protein, carbs etc. This idea stems from many people wanting to make healthy life changes but are finding it difficult to do things like track their macronutrients, with this the user could just look at the food item and they will quickly be able to find this information out. We decided to not move forward with this idea, as using a camera with the Arduino would prove to be difficult.

In this sketch the user is asleep, after a certain time is reached (in this case 7:00am), the users’ blinds will begin to open up allowing them to naturally wake up to the sunlight. This idea comes from many people disliking the sudden and forceful noise from an alarm causing them to wake up in a panic, but also not wanting to leave their blinds open as the sun may begin to rise too early, causing them to wake up earlier than they should. We decided to not move forward with this idea as it was not very unique.

In this sketch there is a small vehicle that would drive around the user’s lawn cutting the grass as it goes. Once it reaches something such as a wall, the vehicle would turn and continue to cut the grass in areas where it has yet to do so. This idea comes from many people not being able to mow their lawn due to things such as old age or a disability. With this the user would be able to just drop it outside, and pick it up when it is done. We decided not to proceed with this idea as it seemed dangerous attaching blades to a small vehicle that would drive around on its own.

The idea behind this design is to use a humidity sensor to detect bad smell. The device would be placed in a room where it has a screen showing the level of smell. To display the level of bad smell, small LED bulbs would light up blue or red. The more blue LED bulbs light up, the better the smell of the room. Similarly, the more red LED bulbs light up, the smellier the room. Using this method, the odour levels are displayed more precisely. We decided not to move forward with this design because humidity is not an accurate measure of odour. There is not a strong correlation between high humidity and bad odour. Thus, this device would not work in areas with medium to high humidity, such as certain regions of the world.

The idea behind this design is to remind the user (who is sitting on a table) to keep a healthy physical distance from their computer for better posture and eye health. This device would be snapped onto a computer monitor, and using an ultrasonic sensor (measures distance using ultrasonic waves) it measures the distance between the monitor and the user. If the distance is too close, the device would alert the user by making a sound. We decided not to move forward with this idea because, although it’s an idea that promotes good health, it’s not novel enough. There are products that already do this; we wanted to implement something that is more unique.

Many times individuals have slept in and forgotten to wake up on time, even if their alarm clock was set. Therefore, the idea behind this design is to wake up a person so that they never miss an occasion. The device would be very similar to an alarm clock, but instead of making a loud noise it would use powerful motors to vibrate the surface laying on. Therefore, the most optimal place to put this device is underneath your bed, or on a hard wooden floor. Once the alarm triggers, it would powerfully vibrate the entire area the user is sleeping in making it seem as if a small earthquake is present, which would wake up the user. Once the user wakes up, the alarm can be turned off by pressing a button on the device. However, we decided not to move forward with this idea because we did not have access to such powerful motors or vibration hardware. 

People often just close the trash can lid and stuff everything in there until they literally can’t anymore and the trash is overflowing so they are forced to take it out. To prevent this from happening an idea we had was to implement an automatic trash closer that would detect the levels of trash to see how close the trash is to being full and would then close after being full, forcing the user to empty it out before they can use it again.

Oftentimes when working and getting in the zone people can develop a bad posture and potentially even injuries such as carpal tunnel. To prevent this we had an idea where a timer based device will forcefully make the user stop what they’re doing by blocking off their access to the device they’re using (will be hooked in) and will alert them to stretch, thus preventing them from developing any harmful long term injuries.

It can be difficult for people to remember how many reps they’re at during a set while working out and for them to keep track of their overall fitness while in the gym. A common alternative nowadays is to write down your information on an app or a physical notebook so you can keep track of your progress. However, this idea would make use of automatic sensors that will keep track of your progress for you. For example, in the drawing above the person is doing pushups and the counter is automatically tracking how many pushups they’re at via a sensor and displaying that value to the screen. 

In this sketch the plant has a screen where it can show different moods. Here the plant originally shows a sad expression as it requires water. Once the user gives the plant water its expression will change to a happy one indicating it has been taken care of. This idea comes from wanting the plant to be more expressive and almost like a pet so the user is more inclined to take care of it. We decided not to move forward with this idea the lcd screen did not provide enough space to display different facial expressions.

In this sketch it shows an automatic pet feeder, the pet feeder would work by having a bowl that contains a reserve of food, once a certain amount of time is reached (in this case 6:00pm) reservoir of food will be placed in the pet’s bowl for them to consume. If the reservoir is low it will display to the user that it is low on feed, and therefore needs to be filled again. This idea comes from users wanting to have their pet automatically taken care of, thus preventing the issue of not feeding their pet due to forgetfulness. We decided not to move forward with this idea as it was not unique.

In this sketch it shows a plant being kept in a vase that acts as a small vehicle. Using a sensor the plant will detect the area with the most sunlight and move towards this area using the small vehicle to absorb the most amount of sunlight possible. This idea comes from plants having to be stuck in one place and as a result they may not be getting the most amount of sunlight possible in a room as the amount of sunlight the plant receives will be dependent on its position relative to the sun at that time of day, by having the plant move to the area with the most sunlight it will be able to always get the most amount of sunlight for a given room at any time of day. We decided to not move forward with this idea as it proved difficult to determine the area of the most amount of sunlight given our equipment.

The idea behind this design was to automate the soil replacing process for plants. Instead of having to replace soil and nutrition for plants, this device would do it for you. The device would consist of two tubes: one tube to extract old soil, the other to insert new soil. These tubes would be placed on the plant soil from underneath. As the user pours fresh soil on the device, the old soil would be pulled away from the plant and the new soil pushed from beneath the plant. Lastly, the device would have a “garbage” hatch, allowing for the old soil to be thrown away. We decided not to move forward with this idea as there would be too many complications, such as old soil mixing with the new soil, and soil getting stuck on the tubes. Also, plant pots don’t have a big opening at the base so it would be difficult to insert the tubes.

The idea behind this device is to provide cool air to your pet during the hot seasons. The pet would press a button labelled “COOL”, which is on the floor. It will then trigger a fan which will blow cool air towards the pet. Before this can be possible, the pet would have to be trained to know that pressing the button will trigger the cooling mechanism. We decided not to move forward with this idea as we wanted to create something that does not require a precondition, such as training the pet, before being able to use the device.

The idea behind this device is to provide shade to the type of plants that cannot be exposed to sunlight. It would use photodetectors (light-sensing sensors) to detect excessive sunlight, for which the device would gradually lengthen itself over the plant and provide shade. Once sunlight is absent, the device would shorten itself back to its original state. Small motors inside the device would shorten and lengthen its body. We decided not to go with this idea as plant owners have already solved this problem: putting sunlight-sensitive plants away from direct sunlight. This idea was unique but by solving a simple problem, it could create many new ones.

The idea behind this variation of the plant waterer is to have the watering process for a plant automated by having a funnel type object inserted into the plant that will automatically dispense water when low by releasing a cap on top. This idea was actually somewhat used in our final idea by having a spray bottle automatically spray water on the plant instead of this dropper and the reason we used a spray bottle rather than the dropper was because having it automatically open and close was more complicated and would require a specifically engineered water dropper.

Just like water plants also require a specific amount of sunlight. However instead of using the sunlight people also use a thing known as a “grow light” for environments where sunlight might not be directly accessible. For this case we thought of a grow light being attached to a sensor and when the sensor detects a light deficiency in the plant it would turn on the grow light automatically for as long as needed. We decided not go through with this implementation since it is hard to measure the amount of sunlight a plant may need (not easily readable from just the soil levels) and also not a lot of ppl have this issue and can normally just place their plants in direct sunlight.

The idea for this device would be to detect the growth of a plant by having sensors measure the starting weight/height of a plant and compare it to the hardcoded final estimated weight/height of a plant to determine how much it has grown at any point throughout the growing process. Although useful, this device does not actually affect the plant in any way (does not help it stay alive) and many people aren’t worried about their plants’ growth at specific moments and are rather focused on its overall growth. We did however include a similar LCD display that is hooked into the plant’s soil as well in our final implementation.

Most plants/flowers have a timeline, and even if they are taken care of properly they may one day pass away (roses for example). So, for this implementation, we created a device to detect how much life a plant has left so you know when to replace it. However, we decided not to move forward with this idea because it is difficult to gauge a plant’s lifetime and many plants go through seasonal changes, so although they may die or lose leaves in the fall they will be healthy and flourishing again come the summer so this idea would not work for every plant/flower.