BIRD - E
A buddy to monitor your electricity consumption.
About the project
As technology advances the use of electrical gadgets and appliances increases. All these gadgets have one thing in common that is the source of power ELECTRICITY. From the moment you wake up, it powers the technology around. The graph of electricity consumption per capita is increasing every year and so is the graph for your electricity bill every month. The device is a piece of responsive art it also communicates emotionally with you to help you save electricity. It is visible and is realtime responsive.
Individual Market Research, Interaction design, Product & visual design, Prototyping.
Duration 2 Weeks
The Problem
Why the electricity bill is so high?
Tracking electricity is difficult on daily as well as the prediction of estimated billing.
How to use electricity efficiently?
Power management through feedback, analysis, and suggestions.
Which appliance is using more power?
The user is not aware of maintenance issues and appliance specific electricity consumption readings.
How to monitor power consumption ?
Daily information on power consumed is not available and is very difficult with the current system.
Visual Feedback
Bird-E is upright in the morning (Blue) and as soon as the power consumption gets higher and closer to the set threshold for the day it starts dropping down in anger (Red)and finally gives an alarm as the daily limit has exceeded
Mobile Application
Keep a track of consumption and alerts
Appliance specific usage
It monitors appliance specific usage and warns the user if the appliance needs maintenance.
Warnings
Detects malfunctioning appliances and notifies the user beforehand
Forecast
Prediction of monthly bills as per that month's usage pattern so the user is aware of the estimated power consumption
Analysis
Shows consumption trends analyzing past data and suggestions to use electricity efficiently
Prototype
First working prototype. Components used were Arduino and Servo Motor
First Prototype | Arduino
Cinema 4D
Research
How do people usually monitor electricity usage?
Meter
Checking the readings on the meter at the start and the end of the month.
Bill
On the monthly electricity bill while paying the bill.
Types of Devices and Loads
Low Load Device < 300W.
e.g Bulb, Fan
Medium Load Device 300W - 1000W
e.g Iron, Blender
High Load Device >1000W
e.g Microwave, Water heater
Concept
People form emotional connections and associations with the things they use and come across throughout their lives. These connections and associations help guide our behavior and determine how we perceive the world.
The concept is developed based on 3 levels of emotional design by Don Norman that captures how people emotionally react to visual experiences. By an initial sensory experience. How we react to our product interactions? and derive value from the products we use. How do we remember the experience itself? How it made us feel?
Usability alone is not enough.
This meant that focusing on just usability and functionality is not enough. What is the balance between keeping the user informed vs. intruding their personal mental space? How do our users feel using our product? Since so much of how they feel daily is determined by the product – it should act less as a third party and more as an extension of themselves.
System Flow
Sensor Features
Daily update of Readings from the meter, no need to manually check anymore.
Better forecast of monthly usage.
Detects malfunctioning appliances and notifies the user beforehand.
Shows consumption trends analysing past data and gives suggestion to use electricity efficiently.
Limits your power consumptions on daily basis to meet your goal.
Improved meter accuracy.
Device Ideation
Mechanism
Wifi connectivity with embedded led light. A servomotor connected with a bob that acts as a pendulum and a micro-controller.
