Caroline Brown » Archive

Gratitude is an interactive display that encourages people to reflect upon moments of feeling grateful. It is comprised of a wall-mounted wood panel, lit from behind. Capacitive touch sensing allows users to seed the panel with moments of gratitude that inspire later moments of contemplation for each other. Materials include laser cut pecan veneer, sanded opaque white acrylic, and warm white LEDs. Capacitive touch sensing is handled by the Arduino CapSense library, and TLC5940s drive the LEDs. Unfortunately, finding an adhesive compatible with both the paper-backed veneer and a plexi has been a struggle. Although the veneer looked beautifully smooth at first, it has warped and come away from the backing in a few places. It’s likely that the only solution for this problem is to use an expoxy to coat the entire face, sealing the veneer and the plexi within. I’d like to stay away from that option, so I’m considering laser cutting a piece of MDF to match the veneer, and then using a layer of paper behind it to diffuse the light.

The user scenario goes something like this: while thinking of someone or something she is grateful for, the user touches the center of any spiral on the panel. A brief pulse of light will shine through the perforations to let her know her input has been noted. After a delay of several hours, a light will appear in the center of the same spiral. Slowly, the whole of the spiral will begin to glow, becoming brighter and brighter, inviting a user (the same user as before or another) to take a moment to contemplate someone or something he or she is grateful for (in my experience, contemplating one thing I am grateful for often reminds me of other reasons I feel gratitude). As the spiral begins to fade, the user has the opportunity to note another moment of gratitude by touching another spiral. In this way, I hope to allow multiple users to inspire a sense of gratitude in each other.