MindFULL: Physical Computing Final Project
Physical Computing Final Project
by group members Stephanie Aaron, Gene Lu, Colleen Miller & Beatriz Vizcaino
You can find additional documentation for this project in these locations:
- History, Story and Iterations: See below
- code and electronics details at Gene Lu’s Blog
- form details
- slide presentation
What is MindFull?
A fork rest that reminds you to put your fork down and chew between bites while you are eating. Our project offers a way for fast eaters to be mindful of their speed, allowing the mind time to process when the body is becoming full.
Target Audience
- Those who have developed bad habits and want to change
- Families who want to encourage good eating habits
Background and Story
Paul McKenna’s Book/Show I Can Make You Thin has 4 Golden Rules:
- Eat when you feel hungry!
- Eat whatever you want!
- Eat consciously!
- Once you feel full stop eating!
Our project attempts to help the user be more conscious of these last 2 points.
Since It takes at least 20 minutes after eating for your stomach to tell your brain that it is full. But most of us finish a meal in 10 minutes or less. Give your stomach time to catch up to your brain by slowing down your eating. After putting food in your mouth, put your fork on the table and let go. Do not touch the fork until your mouth is empty. Repeat through the entire meal.
Why would you want to eat slower?
- Physical Reasons
- Weight control
- Healthy digestion
- Overeat
- Indigestion
- Heartburn
- Social/Emotional Reasons
- Mindfulness
- Stress reduction
- Politeness
- Enjoyment/Pleasure
A quicker pace of eating is associated with higher body mass. Eating slower allows time for your body to product a hormone that’s responsible to signal your brain that you are full. The hormone detects the fat content.
What did you observe? / User Testing
Plus +
- blinking is a strong reminder to put fork down
- testers noted eating less food than they normally do
Delta
- behavior change to habits difficult
- frustration (when eater was in a rush)
- embarrassment (some found the blinking light embarrassing)
How did you iterate?
What worked?
- lighting
- less transparency
- touchy switch
- curved structure
- portability
- clean surface
- battery power
Dead ends
- all different switches
- force resistor
- different form shapes
Final Form
Live Demo
Conclusions
We got some great feedback and results with this prototype, and we would like to build some additional iterations to address the feedback we have received in our critiques. With additional prototyping we would address the following things:
- Testing with the Fork instead of a Fork Rest. Some of our testers like to leave their utensils on the dish, especially with saucy or messy foods. Another form exploration would be adding an accelerometer and vibrating motor to the end of a fork.
- Make it more fun! We would like to explore the idea of altering the form to be like a bird who wants to be fed, who chirps when the fork should be put down.
Overall the concept is working to help fast eaters slow down. Further testing will make the device more usable and desired as a tool for mindfulness.
