OBJECT IDC1: Independent Design Challenge 1: Solving a Personal Pet Peeve
Prompt: Define a list of three pet peeves. It could be related to your ‘dumb’ technology, or not. You should be able to describe what you would make to solve this pet peeve.
A pet peeve that I have while painting, specifically with acrylic paint, is when the paint on my palette dries out before I can use it because I either waited too long, or poured more paint than I needed. I have another pet peeve about paint, and it’s when I mix colors to create a custom color and then I struggle to make the same color again. The interactive object that I would make to help with these pet peeves would be a paint helper that squeezes out different amounts of paint depending on how much I say I need. Other features I would incorporate into the object would be a paint cover so that the poured paint doesn’t dry out as fast and also a way to show the object a color (such as a swatch on paper) and have it pour the paint to recreate the color.
I am the kind of person that does not like crying in front of others, and although I don’t mind when other people do it, it’s a pet peeve of mine. For example, I will be out in public and if I feel like crying, I will suppress the feeling. I recognize that crying can be good for your mental health, so the object that I would make to solve this pet peeve would be a crying support full-face or half face helmet. The helmet would have technological features built inside that would assist with crying: such as calming lights, music, and some fans (to dry your tears). The object could either be something that can be folded and carried around, or be set up as an interactive public object for anyone to use.
Open cabinets or drawers are a big pet peeve of mine, I always have to close them. Especially when I’m at home with my family, they tend to leave the kitchen cabinets or drawers open all the time. The object I would make to solve this pet peeve would detect an open cabinet/drawer and close it (after making sure that no one is actively grabbing something from the cabinet/drawer). Another option would be for the object to detect an open cabinet/drawer but have an alarm or voice that tells whoever is around to close it. The primary goal is for the cabinets/drawers to be closed when they are not be used.