Duration: 4 weeks
Done at: Indiana University, Bloomington
Collaborators: Xi Zhu
Processes and Activities: Arduino Prototyping, Sketching, Python Scripting, Physical Prototypes
About the project:
To design a physical interface using the Arduino micro-controllers to notify the users of the number of unread mails in the inbox in Gmail. The motivation for this project comes from a personal problem that we both felt. The problem being that we felt that we spent too much time in checking emails. This led to low productivity and issues of time management. On asking others we found that there were others too who faced the similar problem.
The project had two primarily goals which came from out motivation for this project. Firstly we wanted to show a more ambient way to show the presence of the unread emails in the inbox. Secondly, the larger goal of the project is to encourage people (like me) who spend way too much time in checking the presence of unread mails to move away from the computer system and come only when notified that there is an email.
Design Process:
Being the first time we were using the Arduino environment, our first task was to learn it. This was followed up by looking into the different sketches (examples) on the Arduino environment. Also required to learn was the basic electronics and the circuitry. We sketched out our idea and consulted this tutorial on how to go about the building of the prototype. Once we had the scripts and code running, we built the prototype, so that it could be placed within a box and the circuits hid in the background.
Software Environments used in the prototype
Also required to learn was scripting using Python Script to read emails from Gmail servers.
The Solution and Physical Prototype video:
We had to use the Bare Bones Arduino instead of the Arduino Diecimila due to the presence of an Auto reset feature on the later. Our prototype runs the script every 15 seconds and checks for email on a particular account. The users can enter the account details in the script. The script returns value for separate states which are again defined by the users.
Currently the prototype is programed to function in these three different states
- No Emails (very dull color) (presently this state signifies 0 emails)
- Low volume of email (transition between blue and green color) (presently this state is for 1 email)
- High volume of emails (transition between read and yellow color) (presently this state is for more than 1 email)
Shown here are the Microcontrollers used and the three different states.
The user has the flexibility to change the thresholds of the different states. The script also allows for the user to change the frequency at which to check the emails.
The physical prototype was made to be placed on the table and connected to the laptop via a USB cable.
Building the Physical Circuit Container
The fine finish ensured that none of the extra wires and the circuit boards were visible. The mould was created to specially make the light more embedded within the environment of the users and not be too harsh to view and in a way distracting.
Final Prototypes
Future Work:
Presently the prototype shows the output from the circuit as a LED light. Going further one could use relays to take this output and create interesting light patterns that could be used for ambient lightings, projected on walls in the homes. The individual notification states could be also used as ambient displays in more creative ways. Another exploration could be to use the output and translate to to a LED Matrix, which could be programed to showcase the actual number of unread emails that the user has. A major boost to this device would be to have it as a Wireless System. This wireless Email Notifier would then remove the dependency on the space. The user would be able to place the system wherever they wish to and also carry it around if required.
