This week Swapna and I finalized our proposal, and developed the bill of materials, timeline, and system diagrams necessary to complete the project.
Project Description
Short: A coin-operated responsive plant that rotates to acknowledge human presence and a visualization of the CO2 in its environment, that plants do the work of converting to human-breathable oxygen, a service people have the option to pay for.
Long: Our project is meant, in part, to prompt people to think about the work that plants do regulating our environment and making it habitable, and what it means to put monetary value to this in a capitalist society. It is also an exchange with a non-human, generally immobile, but living being, that involves you communicating with it via your breath and physical presence while it communicates through respiration and the representation of data. We want to bring forth the way you are each affecting the surrounding environment and sensing each others presence in difference ways.
System Diagram
Project Timeline
| Dates | Tasks |
| 11/16/2016-11/22/2015 | Adafruit order (motor, sensors) |
| Experiment with sensors (infrared, CO2) | |
| Buy & weigh plant | |
| Sensor data to node.js | |
| Node.js to p5 | |
| Buy motor with right amount of torque | |
| Plan construction of plant holder | |
| 11/23/2016-11/29/2015 | Make first interaction work: approach plant and it turns |
| Create visualization in P5 based on what we learn about sensor output | |
| Write Node.js code to read sensor data & set up database | |
| 11/30/2016-12/6/2015 | Connect sensors to node to p5 |
| Build coin box (scrap wood and copper tape) | |
| 12/7/2016-12/13/2015 | Make second interaction work: add reaction for coin drop |
| 12/14/2016 | Project Due! |
Bill of Materials
| Item | Quantity | Amount ($) | Link to purchase |
| Plant | 1 | $20.00 | |
| Pot/Plant holder | 1 | $10.00 | |
| 125oz/in Stepper Motor | 1 | $23.95 | https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13656 |
| IR distance sensor (10-80cm) | 3 | $44.85 | https://www.adafruit.com/products/164 |
| MG811 CO2 sensor | 1 | $34.95 | http://www.futurlec.com/Gas_Sensors.shtml |
| Gas sensor breakout board | 1 | $0.95 | https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8891 |
| Adafruit Feather HUZZAH w/ ESP8266 WiFi | 1 | $15.95 | https://www.adafruit.com/products/2821 |
| Arduino Uno | 1 | $24.95 | https://www.adafruit.com/products/50 |
| Total | $175.60 | ||
| Other/Additions | |||
| Photocells | 2 | 1.90 | https://www.adafruit.com/products/161 |
| Moisture sensor | 1 | $4.95 | https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13322 |
| Microphone (tiny) | 1 | $0.95 | https://www.adafruit.com/products/1935 |
| Microphone (w/breakout) | 1 | $5.95 | https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12758 |