An interactive lunchbox for school kids
Lunch-Mate
Product design | Design Research | Prototyping | Interaction Design | Arduino
Lunch mate is an interactive lunch box that leverages IoT and sensors to encourage healthy eating habits for kids. It weighs the food and translates the data to the kid's pet toy and to a mobile app which keeps track of the kids health. The lunch box also helps foster the relation between the parent and the child
The pet toy is a virtual self of the child, who's well being is an extension of the child's health, hence the child would have to eat healthy for the pet to stay active.
Brief
WHO?
School kids age 5-8
Millenial parents
It’s easy for children to learn, especially from about age 5 - 8
60%
believe becoming a good parent is a significant part of their lives
of a childs's brains develops by age 5
WHY?
HOW?
To make eating lunch at school more interactive by introducing a sense of play and responsibility to the activity of eating.
Design parts
Lunch box
Pet toy
Mobile app
How it works
The lunch box
The case of the the Lunch box senses the weight of the food using a Force Sensitive Resitor(FSR) and sends the data to the pet and the app , Indicating the amount of food eaten by the child
The case also provides instant feedback using LED lights
Switch to turn on only the case opens
Led lights to indicate the amount of food
FSR to measure the amount of food
The Pet toy
The pet toy would react with human like emotions with its eyes and physical feedback was given with the help of vibrators
Different emotions of the pet
Prototype made with dot matrix screen
The App
The main page showing content of app
Stats of the child’s eating schedule
Meal suggestion for the parent
Ingredients and Method for cooking
The Virtual pet Panda
The app can give daily and weekly ananlysis of the childs lunch and suggest the parents the nutrition diet for their kids, there is also a virtual pet for the kids to play as part of a reward
Reward system on the box
The compartment on the top is locked with an interactive game where the child has to answer a simple question written by the parent, upon answering right the child will be able to open the lid to find himself a treat
The question can be changed everyday from alphabets to mathematical solutions etc, this makes learning fun and rewarding
Mechanism of the lock
Design
Design Research
Schools visited:
Nelson school
Blossom school
St. Xavier’s
Shreyas foundation
Study of lunch boxes
Ideal Lunch box should have
-
Interactive
-
Bento lock - easy to open
-
Air tight- avoid leakage
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Various portion sizes
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Bento box
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Various portion sizes
Air tight
Interactive
Study of Virtual and Artificial pets
Qoobo
Sphero
Vector
Tamagotchi
Design Direction
Based on design research ,the following factors determine the child's interest to eat lunch
Process
Virtual pet concept
In order to spread awarness of endangered species and to sensitize children about them they are given a endanged or threthened animal to raise
The game should create an emotional connection between the character and the kid in order to extend the period of play.
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Characters
The Giant Panda
The Siberian Tiger
How does the game work?
Your pet arrives in a basket in the begining,
Tap to find out whats your pet animal,
From here on your pet needs a lot of care , so it can start its life on a good footing
You must discipline your pet otherwise it might become spoilt!
Congrats your pet has made it to the adulthood, Your pets character might be wildly different depending on the care you gave it
You start with a new character after!
