Final Project Design Workbook

1. Final Project Design Workbook Andres Zapata and Amanda Saxe

2. Overview The focus of our design workbook is to generate and develop ideas in relation to the sustainability system in Cornell dining units. Our ideas are influenced and inspired by research on the background of sustainability and technology as well as our own experiences with the current system.

3. Brainstorm of Ideas

4. The Automated Sorter • The ideal system for waste management would involve essentially no user effort • No user effort leaves essentially no room for error and therefore the biggest opportunity to maximize collected compostable and recyclable material • A user would simply be able to throw all his or her trash away in one place, and the device would sort that trash into the three categories by itself! • The main problem with this idea is that we do not have the knowledge to create technology that would be able to automatically sort materials based on their composition. • If we did, then this would definitely be a great option, but the device would have to break down products, identify composition of particles, and somehow separate those particles according to • whether the composition was compostable, recyclable, or neither • Another problem with this plan is that the user gains no knowledge on sustainability, composting, or recycling • One of our goals in implementing our design is to educate users at least on what items are compostable and recyclable. • Our hope is that they will use this information to recycle and compost off Cornell’s campus as well • Ideally, we would like to educate people on how composting and recycling work, why it is important for sustainability, and why sustainability should be important to them • Although this idea would not be a good idea for our specific design, if the technology was made available it would be able to cut out much of the sorting done through compost, recyclables, and landfill to isolate what items don’t belong • This is a tedious activity and is not always effective enough to sort out all incorrect items from a category. For example, if I throw away a plastic Chinese food container in the landfill bin, but inside the container there is some leftover food, it is unlikely that that little amount of food will be sorted out into the compost bin • A tiny bit of food from one plastic container probably won’t make a big difference, but millions of plastic containers with food in them will!

5. The Query System • What if throwing away your food was a similar experience to purchasing your food? • We are accustomed to waiting in line for so many things • Food, drinks, shopping, amusement park rides, airports, banks, cashiers, the DMV, etc. • We know how to do it – stand and wait your turn • We accept that the line is for a reason – whatever we are waiting for requires one-on-one attention • We also accept that this is the right thing to do i.e., I am going to let the person in front of me go first because it would be wrong to cut in front – it is socially acceptable and expected in these scenarios • This type of mentality is established very young (circa lunch lines in elementary school) • How do we update the social norms of line waiting to include throwing away trash? • If it was social accepted that throwing away trash is a one-by-one activity, that person would be able to sort their things without any sort of distraction • There could be a human working at the “trash station” to tell you which item goes where on a person-by-person basis • This employee doesn’t have to be a new hire, custodians are already assigned to maintain the cleanliness of dining facility trash cans, why not have one man a station for some desired shift time? It could work like a cashier system. • Even if we were able to adjust social norms, those who rebel against them could create more of a problem • If you don’t want to wait in line at a restaurant, you can leave. You won’t get the food you wanted, but there is no harm done to the restaurant. • If you don’t want to wait in line for a rollercoaster, you can leave the line and no one will be negatively affected • The basis behind the concept of waiting on line is that the cons of waiting are outweighed by the pros of whatever you receive when you reach the end of that line. • In terms of waste disposal, users are not benefiting enough to make waiting on line worth it • Therefore, users will opt not to wait on line and trash will not be thrown away  this is NOT what we want at all • Even though we can conclude that using a query system will probably not be successful for waste disposal, it is interesting to think about how we can manipulate social norms to influence human action.

6. Scan-n-Sort • An increasingly popular feature on smart phones is the ability to use the device as a portable scanner using the camera. • There are applications that allow you to scan the barcode of anything, the program will read the barcode and give you information on the object’s price, product description, location, and more depending on the situation • A different point of view involves the idea of creating a unique barcode on a new product that can be scanned using a corresponding application for a smart phone. • For example, there are kids toys that contain scan-able pictures or codes that will allow them to do certain activities or unlock certain information pertaining to that toy • At Cornell, the majority of students carry smart phones, and from what I observe, the phone is something that students don’t leave the house without. • It would be very rare for me or anyone I know to go to class or to go eat on campus and not have your cell phone in your pocket, backpack, or right in your hand. • What if a similar sort of scanning application was able to scan waste products and categorize each item into compost, recycling, or landfill? • The application would use the camera to take a picture and some sort of recognition software to identify or approximately identify what category of waste it is • One problem with this idea is that a purely visual display of an item usually gives no insight regarding the material it is made up of • If I were to scan a compostable fork (made with compostable material), how would it know that the fork, which looks similar to plastic forks, is indeed compostable? • In this case, the image scanner would not be ideal • A solution to this problem would be to add barcodes to items that would specify their material. • If Cornell dining facilities placed a barcode sticker on all of its products, users would be able to scan the barcode either before or after eating to know which bin it should be placed in (compost, recycling or landfill) • A problem with this idea is that it would probably require extra work from dining staff • Scanning items to decide whether they are compostable, recyclable, or trash is relatively intuitive, however it does require some effort on the user’s end • Most likely, users would have to initially download an application to their mobile phone before being able to use the system • After each meal, users would need to spend time scanning each thing on their table before even walking over to the disposal bins • We cannot be sure that students will ever take the time to use the product • Most Cornell students have fairly busy schedules, is composting and recycling enough of a priority to make this effort? • We are more interested in developing a design that doesn’t take this risk

7. Educational, Engaging, and Fun • In the previous design (Scan-n-Sort) we mentioned that making sure users will use the system is a priority. • This means that if the user has to spend more time and effort using the system than he or she has, or purely wants to spend, they might not sort items at all. • For this design, we decided to take almost an opposite approach • Instead of attempting to decrease the time and effort required to use the system, we will increase both of these aspects, but make the system engaging and fun • Our hope would be that the entertainment and excitement value is great enough for students to willingly use it and correctly sort their items • We would use Kinect technology for the system • Kinect technology is able to recognize images and movement using a camera • Students would be able to stand in front of our system and control the device with their bodies • For example, a student walks up to a screen with a water bottle to throw away. Kinect detects his presence and a welcome screen appears. The screen would then prompt the user to hold up his item for the Kinect camera to register. Once registered, the screen would display the category that the water bottle is to be disposed in. • This is how the general disposal system would work • There may be other options to play with the Kinect technology in an educational way • Activities involving movement or trivia could be implemented in order to get students interested in learning about sustainability, composting, and recycling • Although we think this would be a fun idea, there are many drawbacks to the concept • In reality, students generally don’t have time to spend throwing their lunch away whether they want to or not • Even if a user is excited by the system and is having fun with it and would like to use it to sort his or her items, if he or she needs to be in class in 3 minutes, the user will leave regardless of how much fun he or she is having • What kind of environment might this be successful in? • Places like amusement parks, shopping malls, museums, or even tourist locations could potentially benefit • People in these types of places are not usually pressed for time – most of them are designed for entertainment purposes • Users might be more willing to have fun throwing away their trash and learning about sustainability when they are already in that mindset (of having fun) • Something that we liked from this design was the implementation of Kinect technology because it can detect when a person is near a bin and because it has the potential to recognize items • For example, if I am holding an apple in my hand and walk up to the described screen, ideally, the Kinect system will recognize that someone has approached and that there is an apple in the environment

8. Make it a Competition • If we give students incentives to recycle and compost, they may be more likely to do so. • For this, we will make a game or competition out of properly sorting your waste. • The system will have a scanner that will work with the Kinect software, as explained in the previous design.. • Every time you go to use the system, you scan your ID card and pull up your profile. • Then you must scan each item individually as you throw it out. • When you scan the item, it is registered by the system. • There are also scanners within each bin that register when an item is placed inside it. • If you place it in the right bin, you get 5 points. • If you place it in the wrong bin, you lose 3 points. • At the end of the semester, points are ranked up. • The top 10 students get a trip to the Cornell Club in NYC one weekend, where they will be treated to a dinner and a Broadway show. • Weighing the cost of the reward. • Although the cost of transporting 10 students, giving them a fancy dinner, and a ticket to a Broadway show may be costly, it is outweighed by the accomplishment that properly sorting recyclable and compostable items brings.

9. Face Recognition • An import idea with want to pursue is aiming the design of a system that can identify your items and sort them accordingly. • The biggest problem with students is not having the time or knowledge to sort the items they are going to throw out. • This is what prevents them from actually being sustainable and piling up the landfill bin. • When you buy food on campus, the garbage you are going to throw away is dependent on what you get. • The utensils and packaging used for you meal get thrown out. • Any left over food or parts of a food that doesn’t get eater gets thrown out. • Items that you buy can get thrown out. • This is all part of the meal you buy. • When you buy your meal and pay at the register, there is a camera that is on the cashier’s monitor that faces you and takes your picture. • The picture is stored in a database with what you bought. • Everything that is associated with your meal that can possibly be disposed of is linked to your face. • When you approach the bin system, there is another camera that detects faces that approach it. • If your face is recognized as one that is in the database for having recently bought food, it pulls up all the items that were linked to you and your meal. • They are automatically sorted and displayed for you to use as a guide to throwing out your items in the proper bins. • Of course, this isn’t the only way students have access to buying food. • There are vending machines or outside of Cornell products that could have been brought in. • This will most likely not be in the database and will not become available for you to use as a guide on the screen. • There has to be a better design that will address a larger scope of item purchase and availability.

10. Developing Final Design From Brainstormed Ideas and

11. The Screen • The screen will have three main sections. • The first is at the very top, which will simply say, “Sustainability at Cornell” • The middle section is the most complex. • There will be three subsection pertaining to the bins. • One labeled Recycle; the second, Compost; the last, Landfill. • Under each of these, when ever an item is picked up, it will be placed in whichever of the three it belongs in. • The system is inactive whenever there are no items being detected within the detection range. • During inactivity, there will be a message box that will welcome and instruct users and thank them for doing their part. • The last section will have a counter for each of the three bins. • These counters are an indication of the amount of pounds of materials that have been collected throughout all the systems around Cornell. • These are updated whenever an item gets placed into the bin. The weight corresponding to the item will be added to the respective bin. • The updates are in real time and take into account all the systems, not just the individual one at a particular location. • This serves the purpose of allowing its users to see that they are actually making a change and contributing to a cause. • In a way this serves as an incentive and reward that will give them a good feeling for having done something good for their school and the environment.

12. Chip Detection • Branching off of the face recognition design, there should be a way to improve on it and come up with a more usable and efficient design. • Each item that is available at Cornell anywhere (dining facility, a le carte, vending machine, etc.) had a chip on it with essential information. • Item name • Item picture • Item category (recycle, compost, or landfill) • When you approach the system, it will scan or register the chips. • It will then display the picture belonging to the item above the bin that it belongs to. • You will not have to sort your items on your own. • It will be done automatically for you. • Chips are unique • They are specific for each item and will be detailed for that one item. • The chips on recyclable material are recyclable. • The chips on compostable material are compostable. • The chips on landfill material have no impact. • One tricky thing is on food. • With current technology this may be hard to tackle. • But as a design, this seems like the best solution. • With future technology, chips that are on food will be placed on a location that will allow it to be accessed without consumption, e.g. the core of apple or the stem of a fruit. • But if they are consumed, they can be digested by the system. • The benefits of this design meet the goals we want to accomplish. • There is minimal time and effort from the user’s part. • The items get sorted automatically, you don’t need to figure out what item is what. • All you do is look at the display, see your item, and throw it out where you are told to. • Users will easily engage with the system and have no problem interacting with it.

13. Addressing non-Cornell items • Having decided that the face recognition design was too limited to the supply and having decided that the chip design would be the best to further implement, there was still the issue of non-Cornell items. • Cornell Dining would be in charge of placing the chips on each individual item. • This would work perfectly with the system and would be detected and displayed once it came into detection range of the system. • The issue was with items brought from home or anywhere that wasn’t supplied by Cornell Dining and wouldn’t have a recognizable chip. • As mentioned in a previous design, we will use Kinect to address those items. • Kinect has an object recognition ability, and this continues to improve every year. • When you approach the system, Kinect will recognize all the objects you are carrying. • If an item is matched with one that was picked up by the system from a chip, it will not do anything aside from the chip recognition. • If an item does not get matched with detected with a chip, Kinect will dive into a database full of items and product and match it to the one it has recognized. • The database will be full of all possible items, of any brand, and of any variation. • The information of the item that is matched in the database will used by the system to sort and display on the screen.

14. Item Trapper • An important aspect to consider in this design is how to prevent errors • In this case, an error would be defined as placing a piece of waste inside a bin it does not belong in. For example, putting a plastic fork in the compost bin would be an error. • Our system will contain some sort of item detection that recognizes whether it goes in compost, recycling, or landfill, but what if the user does not follow the system’s instructions and places the item in the wrong bin anyways? • Ideally, we would like to figure out some way to trap the incorrect item and eventually return it to the bin it belongs in • We could use suction to separate the item from the incorrect bin • This would be very complicated to implement • Suction level would vary per item i.e. heavier items would require more suction • What would happen if I placed a soda can in the landfill bin which contained lots of napkins? Howwould suction pick up the soda can without getting the napkin too? • This idea is probably not possible • We could block the item from ever going inside the bin • This would have to be done by preventing the user from placing an item in the wrong bin • One option is for the system to detect when an item is close to the lid of the bin • Once this detection is made, it registers whether the item belongs in that bin or not • If it does not belong in the bin, the lid locks, preventing the user from putting it there • The user is now forced to put the item in another bin • The lid will only open and allow the user to dispose of that item if it is the correct bin • This technique is good because it essentially prevents any error from happening • There are problems with it though… • If there are multiple people throwing things away, users throwing items away correctly may be blocked if there are other users trying to throw something away incorrectly • We have to account for apathetic users there is a chance that someone will see that the lid didn’t open, and instead of trying another bin, he or she may decide to leave their trash on the lid, on the floor, or somewhere else • We need to find a solution that creates a happy medium between user satisfaction and error prevention • Instead of blocking users from placing items in bins by closing lids, we could implement positive feedback for depositing an item in the correct bin by opening the lid • Once the item is registered, if a user places it into a correct bin, the lid will open if the item is in close proximity to the lid • If it is in close proximity to an incorrect lid, the lid will not open, but it will not prevent the user from disposing the trash with a slight push to get the item into the bin