Fruition: Smart Fruit Bowl
Bringing calm technology to the household through an ambient fruit bowl
My Role
Field Study
Interaction Design
Software Engineering
Timeline
March - May 2024
Project
Master of Design Group Project
Background
Technology is ubiquitous in our lives, yet it constantly demands our attention making us feel at the mercy of our devices.
Calm Technology and Ambient Computing are movements that argue for non-intrusive relationships with our devices.
Approach
Our goal was to explore opportunities for calm technology in the kitchen space.
On a team of three, I focused on conducting a field study, synthesizing insights, and developing the interaction design model.
Outcome
We developed one of the first smart fruit bowls which can detect 5 different types of fruit through computer vision and provide gentle feedback to a user through motion and sound when their fruit is going to rot.
Field Study
In our research, our goal was to observe home cooks interact in their kitchen space and understand their feelings towards cooking or preparing meals.
Sample Questions
How do you typically use the kitchen?
How do you typically feel when you are in the kitchen?
Are there things that frustrate you in the kitchen? Can you show me? Why?
What else do you do besides cooking in the kitchen?
Can you share a memory that you have of being in the kitchen? Why do you think that comes to mind?
Synthesis
Observing Rebecca cook in the kitchen and interviewing others, we noted that expert home chefs view cooking as a relationship between themselves, their tools, their kitchen space, and their produce.
“My food tells me when it’s ready to be eaten”
Rebecca, Home Chef
So we asked, how might we help other home cooks develop a close relationship to their food?
Concept
After a few rounds of ideation, we fell in love with the idea of making food talk to communicate their needs.
We focused on fruit given their tendency to rot quickly, and developed a form factor that integrated computer vision and actuator capabilities.
Interaction Design
Our goal was simple: to detect rotten fruit and bring the home chef’s attention to them.
We applied calm technology principles by choosing physical feedback that would engage a users’ visual sense of motion and sound.
We decided to avoid notifying users of specific fruits to invite them to engage with the produce.
