A Global Pandemic!
This brief brought a lot of challenges as we were issued it during a global pandemic, this meant we needed to find ways in which we could work together as a team whilst adhering to the university's and the governments guidelines.
Some obstacles we needed to overcome were quarantining our model as it changed hands within the group as well as communications. We overcame our lack of face to face conversation by having a group chat in which we were constantly discussing the project and letting everyone know what we each were doing. Miro became a very useful tool when we needed to brainstorm our ideas as it allowed us all to express our ideas live and for everyone to edit and adapt them. Weekly Teams calls were also a great way of showing the models progress and recapping on what we had done that week and what still needed to be achieved.
Product Description
Paperhoods as a company aims to provide help for those affected by natural disasters. We wanted to collaborate with Shiguru Ban having been inspired by his paper shelters. Howwever, we found that with pre-existing disaster aid efforts, lighting – an integral part of allowing us to feel safe and comfortable – was often overlooked. Thus, “Luminate” came to fruition. The idea behind “Luminate” is to provide temporary relief to those suffering by creating a homely, safe atmosphere with ambient lighting coming from the interior luminere. The detachable exterior light allows each individual to communicate with non-verbal signals, bringing people together.
How it Works
The two lights are detachable from each other using magnets allowing for an easy removal of the alert light, this alert light is also held in place outside the shelter using magnets to limit user complication when trying to hang it. The strap for the interior light is also magnetic however just on one side, this allows the strap to be placed round the ceiling beam of the shelter and hung easily.
The interior light is made using 2 wooden disks which were CNC'd to allow space for the electronics and so the paper lantern could be attached. Inside the lantern there are 2 pieces of sting which prevent the paper from stretching too far and ripping. Electronics in the lantern consist of a reed switch pico circuit that when the magnet in the top disk touched the circuit the light would turn off, this meant the user didn't need to worry about switching off the light as when the lamp was closed the light would automatically turn off.
For the alert light we also used a CNC'd wooden disk in which a papier mache dome made from tracing paper was placed along with an Arduino Pico circuit with a 12 led neopixel which was coded to use three buttons to turn on three superset coloured lights, each light had a different meaning so that when turned on passers-by would know what kind of assistance they required.
A video showing Luminate in action