We are dogs’ biggest enemy and we are here to save pet owners.
What do dogs get excited about besides playing fetch? The answer is food. They would eat anything. So don’t you hate to see your dog stealing snacks from the food cabin? It is almost like your money getting stolen by your child at home. Nobody likes that.
Lightbox is an interior decor that serves as your food cabin guard with an “implanted” buzzer, a movement sensor, and surrounding lights. When the dog approaches the Lightbox, the sensor will sense movement and enable the buzzer to activate and the light to change color as a way to warn and scare away your greedy dog.
I believe that every dog owner has the same frustrations of your dog digging in the trash even with a trash can lid. So I want to adjust my dog’s behavior by designing a trash can with a sensor that makes a buzzing noise to stop them before they start their “treasure hunt”.
Introduction
I realize that most trash cans are in a cylinder shape where my dog loves to approach it from all directions which would be hard to capture their coming distance, so I want to make a right triangle shape trash can that can be placed in a corner of my home, and the sensor will be on the hypotenuse side to better measure and capture my dog’s movement.
Tutorial Steps:
The trash can will be constructed based on three main pieces of acrylic sheets, so measure and cut the neopixel strip based on the acrylic sheet’s length.
Solder the Neopixel strip, buzzer, and ultrasonic sensor onto an arduino board.
Alter the code into white color light.
Set the buzz time to last 3 seconds.
Cut a slit (that would fit the neopixel strip) in three wooden blocks
Cut the wood diagonally on the two shorter sides of the wooden block
Cut the plywood into right triangle shape as the trashcan’s base
Glue all the parts together
Video Storyboard
Full shot: Me watching tv and heard noises from the trashcan
Close up: My dog digging through trash
Extreme close up: All the mess my dog made, trash on the floor
Wide shot: The triangle trash can I made in the corner
Wide shot: My dog approaching to the trashcan
Full shot: The trash lights up, and make buzz noises
The first idea is a clock lamp where the time will light up when you wave to it. I am a person that likes to sleep very late, and hope to make something that can improve my daily routine and remind me to sleep earlier, so I am thinking of setting specific time to light up in different colors. (For instance, red color after 12 am.)
One of my dog BuBu is a trouble maker, trash can is his treasure box, and he would always dig through the trash. So for my second idea, I wanted to make a triangle trash can that will be placed in the corner. There will be a sensor on the trash can, when BuBu comes close to the trash can, the light will turn red, and pre-recorded voice “NO” will play(or a vibration effect).
The last sketch is a combination of the first two ideas. I am thinking of making a storage box for my dogs’ food. When its time to feed them, the time will light up and the speaker will play ” MoMo BuBu its time to eat!”.
For my halloween costume, I am inspired by Peking Opera. I think it is incredible to see how different opera mask represents each roles’ characteristic, specifically through the use of colors and patterns. Nowadays, traditional opera are still very popular and beloved by younger generations, some hotpot restaurant also integrated opera shows as a part of the dinning experience. I really wanted my costume to emphasize my culture and background, so I decided to make a matching set of Peking Opera’s mask accessory.
I painted a couple layers of white paint first, and sketched out the contour where I will be filling in colors. To make the mask look neat, I went in again with a smaller brush and white paint to clean up the edges.
My initial idea was adding on a wig to the mask so that it feels more creepy, so I poked holes around the mask, and sewed the wig onto the mask. However, it does not turn out how I imagined, so I decided to remove the wig.
I made a small pouch to store batteries, and sewed it onto the hat.
Instead of the wig idea, my plan B is to sew the mask onto the back of a hat, and to prevent the threads getting loose in the middle of the parade, I added a little bit of hotglue.
I really want the light to be very bright, so I used thin muslin fabric to diffuse the light. I wrapped the fabric around the light and hotglued it.
This is the second mask, the patterns symbolizes tiger, my zodiac animal. it will be a “crossbody mask”. So I decided to poke two holes for the strap to go through. One thing that would be cool to improve on that Becky mentioned is to make a bigger pouch behind the mask and turn it into a functional purse.
For my halloween costume, I am going to make a Opera mask accessory. I painted the mask with a white base, and the three main colors that I will be using is black, white, and red. I am going to fill in the black, and add more layers so the paint do not sheer, next, I’ll touch up with white paint, and probably apply gloss coat. I also ordered a wig which I’ll attach it to the back of the mask to make it feel more creepy.
I wanted the light to represent tears so I made the delay pretty short, and the light will light up from top to bottom on a loop, and the color changes every round. Since the mask is only in white, red, and black. I am still exploring the right color combination to make it feel coherent.
My halloween costume is inspired by chinese culture, especially assassin from some shows that I’ve watched. For my main costume, I’ll be ordering a Qipao dress, sai props, and maybe some hair accessories.
For this project, I will be making a mask inspired by Peking opera, the four main roles are Sheng, Dan, Jing, and Chou, the color usually represents the roles, and they are categorized based on the gender, age, evil or kind-hearted nature.
I will be making a white mask(usually the bad guy role).
I couldnt find any white mask that is hard enough, most of them on amazon are made out of either thin plastic or paper. So I am thinking of making the base with sculpey and paint directly on it. Instead of a mask to wear on the face, i’ll be adding a longer strap to carry it on my back.
This little plush toy is for kids who are afraid of dark. The little dino is a perfect toy for kids to cuddle with in the dark. The wings is bright enough to give kids comfort and a sense of companionship in night time, while the LED brightness is not over exposed to the point of discomfort for kids. I really enjoyed the sewing process and I think one of the most challenging part was soldering the LED.
Process photos
For the little dino’s head, I sewed yarn between the two head pieces to emphasize the spikes.
I chose to make the wings with light muslin fabric so that its thin enough for the light to diffuse through.
Next I sewed the body, wings, and head together.
I did not sew the wings entirely, I left a slit that is wide enough for the LED to go through.
I hand sewed the legs and arms onto the little dino’s body.
These are some sketches of flower and moon shape bed for dogs. For the flower bed, LED lights would be in the bees where they will be stabilized with wires. For the Saturn and moon shape bed, LED light would be in white or yellow, depicting stars.
I am now leaning toward this direction. LED Dinosaurs lamp for kids who are afraid of dark!! I am thinking of using polar fleece as the main fabric, and the LED lights will be the dinosaur’s eyes and nose. Maybe some LED on the wings too.
