System Concept and High Level Architecture
HyCube is a smart home system that facilitates the monitoring of cleanliness of core surfaces in the home through the use of sensors and contextualized tile displays. The goal and motivation of this product is to enhance people’s ability to detect and address unwanted germs, dust, and bacteria and coordinate communication between roommates to keep collective spaces clean. In our formative study, we conducted diary studies and follow-up interviews to understand how people are currently monitoring the cleanliness of spaces and working together with their roommates to complete cleaning tasks. Based on our findings in our formative study, we designed HyCube to:
- Help people prioritize cleaning tasks by notifying them when spaces actually get dirty. People were spending way too much time either neglecting cleaning entirely or cleaning the same spaces over and over again because they did not know what was present on each of these surfaces.
- Make cleaning more fun and visual through ambient lights
- Make communication around cleanliness as clear as possible through subtle and contextual visual notifications
- Use sensors or technology to take out the guesswork
- Incorporate scheduling and tracking of cleaning tasks
- Create a space for communicating about cleaning outside of communication tools already use
- Help make communication around cleanliness less awkward and more objective through task assignment and providing a separate group chat space
Goals for Demo
We created a demo focusing on how a newcomer of a space would learn how to install and use this system to divide up cleaning tasks and monitor the cleanliness of different homes. We showed what the users would do if they saw that certain bacteria or germs were detected and how they’d use the contextualized display to understand where they would need to clean. We also wanted to integrate the cross-channel experience of interacting with our system across different devices and other users.
Demo
In our script, we will first lead by explaining how the system works and its key components, which consist of the mobile app, the collective cube monitor, and the contextualized tile display.
- Three roommates welcome a new roommate into the home, and they acquaint him with the HyCube system that they’ve been using for four months now.
- Sunny has already sent Michael an email inviting him to download the app and sign up for the new service.
- Michael sees the task breakdown amongst the different roommates and checks out the frequency and settings for his assigned task for the week, which is cleaning the floors. Together, they add a task to the system.
- The cube is lit up as green, showing that the surfaces are safe from dust, germs, and bacteria. They keep the cube in the living room so that everyone can see it.
- When they’re hanging out after dinner, they see that one side of the cube is lit up as red. This probably means that some harmful bacteria has been detected in the kitchen.
- Sunny gets some Clorox wipes and start wiping down the counters. The cube turns green again.
Prototyping Process
Our demo consists of a cardboard cube, Arduino, an iPad to represent the contextualized tile display, and an iOS app to manage the cube and display settings. We are using the MySQL database, Apache Server, and Facebook SDK. We used LED lights with the Arduino to light up the cube and Raspberry PI.
An explanation of how the demo did or did not capture key elements of the intended experience
The demo captures most key elements of the intended experience on the mobile app, but it does not connect the image sensors with the cube as we intend to. We imagine that the image sensors will detect foreign substances and change the colors of the cube over the network. Ideally, the sensors themselves would also change color for immediate feedback. While this technology is currently being developed, the sensors needed to quickly detect and identify bacteria would be very expensive. However, it is likely that in the future, these sensors will be more accessible and easily-integrated into people's homes.
Demo Captures
The demo captures most key elements of the intended experience on the mobile app, but it does not connect the image sensors with the cube as we intend to. We imagine that the image sensors will detect foreign substances and change the colors of the cube over the network. Ideally, the sensors themselves would also change color for immediate feedback. While this technology is currently being developed, the sensors needed to quickly detect and identify bacteria would be very expensive. However, it is likely that in the future, these sensors will be more accessible and easily-integrated into people's homes.
Feedback and Insights
One of our key insights from our research that informed our prototype design is that everyone measures, perceives, and responds to cleanliness differently. Since we focus on those who live with others, we knew that it would be important to understand, and prototype for, different roommate dynamics and people with varying levels of investment and interest in cleaning. We realized the importance of preparing the image sensors to measure the level of cleanliness and alert the user through changing the colors on the cube; this requires little of the user as the system will passively collect information about the space and share it with the user.
We also noticed the importance of creating a strong narrative arc to explain how the cube, mobile app, and contextualized display would communicate with one another. The cube alone would simply not provide as much contextualized information and would serve as a collective monitoring tool, constantly reminding the roommates that the cleaning covenant they have agreed to monitor. For controlling the settings on the cube, a mobile app was needed; this requires more engagement from the user, but allows them to be connected with their roommates and will help hold them accountable to tasks that they have been assigned to within the home.
The tile display would be embedded in each surface and provide specific guidance on where and how to clean the spaces. The tile provides richer information than the cube, but still allows users to understand how clean their space is without having to interact with a mobile app. Through our research, we learned that people wouldn't mind learning about the condition of their home through their phone while they are away (e.g. getting a notification from a roommate that they cannot complete their tasks), but would like to minimize how much they have to use their phone while they are at home for this type of information. The tile allows a user to see the general condition information about the space that they are in as well as a specific breakdown about it.
We also noticed the importance of creating a strong narrative arc to explain how the cube, mobile app, and contextualized display would communicate with one another. The cube alone would simply not provide as much contextualized information and would serve as a collective monitoring tool, constantly reminding the roommates that the cleaning covenant they have agreed to monitor. For controlling the settings on the cube, a mobile app was needed; this requires more engagement from the user, but allows them to be connected with their roommates and will help hold them accountable to tasks that they have been assigned to within the home.
The tile display would be embedded in each surface and provide specific guidance on where and how to clean the spaces. The tile provides richer information than the cube, but still allows users to understand how clean their space is without having to interact with a mobile app. Through our research, we learned that people wouldn't mind learning about the condition of their home through their phone while they are away (e.g. getting a notification from a roommate that they cannot complete their tasks), but would like to minimize how much they have to use their phone while they are at home for this type of information. The tile allows a user to see the general condition information about the space that they are in as well as a specific breakdown about it.