Speculative Design
Conception to Realization
Team:
Solo Project @ SVA
Role:
Conception to Realization
Tools used:
Adobe Illustrator,
Adobe Premier Pro
Arduino ADE
Duration:
1 month
(2021)
Mountains is an air quality visualizer designed for individuals seeking to monitor the air quality in their cities on a daily basis.
Air pollution is aggravated every year globally, largely due to wildfires and industrial activities. According to airnow.gov, tracking AQI on a daily basis can help you take precautions to protect your health when air quality is poor. The AQI reports and grades daily air quality, and it helps people understand how their local air quality impacts their health.
This concept utilizes visibility as an indicator to the traditional color-coded air quality system. The design features four layers of acrylic mountains with LED strips that light up based on air quality. As air quality worsens, fewer LEDs light up, revealing only the silhouette of the first mountain. This design provides an engaging and interactive way to visualize air quality.
The mountains were made by cutting acrylic boards with a laser cutter and the base was constructed using a table saw. Wiring was also an important consideration, and lessons were learned from previous projects. Extra time and effort were dedicated to ensure that the wiring was clean and well-organized.
Acrylic sheets are inherently reflective, causing unwanted reflections. To address this issue, I applied multiple layers of color primer on the acrylic surface. The primer particles scatter light beautifully, as evident in the photos.
To address the static nature of air pollution data, I developed two codes - one with demo data to test the effect and the other with the real weather data sourced from openweathermap.org. The demo codes incorporate two buttons for toggling the air pollution status from good to bad and vice versa. The real data code uses actual weather data to update the air pollution status.
Go to Instructables article >
HJ for his invaluable contributions to the coding of this project,
and Becky for helping me develop the concept from the ground up