Final Essay
By Xiaoyi Cai (Mia) Date: 4/19/2021
I. Project Title
💧Drink Water!
II. Project Statement of Purpose
Just like the title of our project, this project is designed for people who usually forget or feel bored drinking water. We want this project can help them to drink water in an easy and interesting way. There will be a visual effect of a tree (or other plants) and sound effect to remind the user to drink on the screen of the computer. In this way, the user could get enough water every day and have a healthier life. As for the main challenge for this project, I think is how to make it more interactive, just like what we have discussed in class. We should consider more on water devices or the way to drink or other interactive functions.
III. Project Plan
Here’s our plan for the whole project:
Part One — The physical part and the overall structure
Part Two — The Arduino part and the possible elements
Part Three — Processing part and the basic visual design
IV. Context and Significance
To be honest, the first idea that appeared in our minds when knowing the requirement was the physical running game, like Super Mario. However, thanks for the instructions that required us to come up with three ideas. Therefore, we spent much time thinking much the other two ideas. And our final proposal of the final project was just from this process. During the discussion, I put forward that whether we could make something like an electronic pet, but after further consideration, we found it was not that interesting. However, this idea began to root in my mind. Then, when I looked through the significant topics provided by the professors, we came up with an idea to make a project that using an electronic tree in the computer to remind people to drink, which was different from the traditional electronic pet, and also related to the topic of health. We hope that this project can help people to get enough water every day for health in an interesting way. As for the interaction part, I think it contains the process that the computer utters the reminding sound, and the user has the response to have a drink. Also, it contains the process the uses picks up the bottle to drink and puts it back, then the electronic tree will appear to grow or be happy. According to the level of drinking water, the electronic tree will show different reactions, which fits my definition of interaction well.