The email sender -

An interactive human-powered device to perfom daily tasks

Project description

The email sender is a human-powered interactive device capable of sending emails of different sizes and with different attachments. Human-powered devices gather energy from the human interactions with it and they are powered without the need of any batteries or power plugs.

Tools/Using

Arduino

Laser cutter

Advanced electronics

Role

Interaction designer

Developer

Physical prototyper

Team

Olivia Almgren, Jenny Norman, Indira Amaris, Sabina Nordell, and Elena González Rabal for the Advanced Project course of the Interactive Media Technology master's program.

The Email Sender consists of two main parts: the crank and the feedback interface. By cranking, the motor attached to the crank powers the system.

The feedback interface serves both as an output and as an input. It shows the status of the process from the status indicators (flipdots), but it also gets the input from the type of email the user wants to send: an email with a simple sentence, an email with a text file, an email with an image or an email with an audio file.

Three main concepts have been studied in this project:

The human energy needed to power a device which performs basic daily tasks

The carbon footprint generated by the specific daily task, in this case, sending an email

The interactions with a human-powered interface

Important insights from user testing

• It is tedious to crank the system while pressing the input buttons. Not a seamless way of interaction.
• Pedalling to power the system could have freed the hands for other interactions.
• Interesting way to create sustainability awareness regarding email/daily digital activities massive storing.

The project was suppervised and directed by Anders Lundström who was at the time a KTH researcher and he is currently an associate professor at Umeå University. Anders is undergoing exciting researches on this field (among others) which you can follow on his profile page.