Sustainability at Cornell

By Andres Zapata and Amanda Saxe

PROTOTYPE

• The purpose of this PowerPoint is to provide a storyboard presentation on how to effectively use our system.• Before coming up with the final product of our

project, we went through various renditions of the system.• We will now present the final version,

accompanied by a story in which our persona, Marc, interacts with the system.

MARC

• Marc is a junior studying at Cornell University.• He is an engineer majoring in Electrical and

Computer Engineering. • Marc has a very busy schedule, but has a very

limited gap around 1:30 in the afternoon, where he squeezes in some time to eat lunch.

Mattin's Café

• Because of the general convenience and proximity to his classes, labs, work, library, and study areas, Marc frequently eats lunch at Mattin's Café, located in Duffield Hall.

MARC’S ORDER• Today, Marc’s meal consisted of:• A Spicy Italian wrap• A Brisk Iced Tea beverage• A banana• A pickle• A piece of gum• A straw for the beverage• 2 packets of mayonnaise • 2 packets of mustard• Napkins

THE MEAL

• Marc thoroughly enjoyed his meal. • He ate the wrap, the pickle, and the banana, and

drank the iced tea.• In addition, he used up all the mayo and mustard

packets.• At the end of his meal, he ate the piece of gum.

CLEANING UP

• Marc has to get to his next class. • Before leaving, he needs to throw out his

garbage.• His items include:• A plate• A banana peel• An iced tea bottle• A straw and the wrapper• The mayo and mustard packets• A gum wrapper• Napkins

APPROACHING THE BIN

• Marc has gathered his items and makes his way to the bin disposal system. • On his way there, he begins to look at the display,

and notices the welcome message displayed.

Approach the bins with your items out.They will be detected and automatically

sorted for your convenience.

Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep Cornell more sustainable!

• At this point, the system is inactive, awaiting future users to approach it for use.• Because it is an inactive state, there is a message

being displayed to greet and instruct approaching users. • Additionally, because of the inactive state, the

background is dimmed to conserve energy and allow maximum visibility of the message.

CHIP DETECTION

• Each item obtained from a Cornell Dining Facility comes with a chip attached to it.• This chip contain all the information pertaining to

the specific item, including:• The item itself (name)• The brand of the item, if applicable• The material of the item• An image of the item• Which bin it should be disposed in• The weight of the item

CHIP DETECTION

• When you are 5 feet within the system, it will pick up a signal being emitted from each chip.• The system will change state into active mode.• The information from the detected chips is

extracted and processed.• The image of the item is displayed on the screen

under which bin it belongs in.

WHAT IF?

• What if you had an item not from Cornell?• It wouldn’t have a chip on it.

• You were instructed to have your items out as you approached the system because the system is using Kinect’s object recognition software to detect he items. • If there is no chip to match an item, the Kinect

software will be able to recognize it and pull up its information from a database of products.

MARC APPROACHES THE BINS

• Marc has approached the bins and his items have been picked up by the system.• They have been sorted and are on display on the

screen for him.

452.64 lbs645.35 lbs 312.23 lbs

MARC’S ARRIVAL• Marc gets to the bins and is delighted to have his

items automatically sorted for him already. • His busy schedule limits the amount of time and effort he

can dedicate to sorting and throwing away his items on his own.

• He looks up at the recycling section first.• The iced tea bottle is the only recyclable item he

has.• Easy enough, he directs it towards the recycling

bin.

HOWEVER…

• The lid did not open and its own display turned red to warn Marc of an error.

MARC’S ERROR

• Marc must’ve committed an error.• He is slightly confused about what it could be as

he clearly has the recyclable iced tea bottle geared towards the recycling bin.• He looks up at the screen for more information

about his error.

452.64 lbs645.35 lbs 312.23 lbs

MARC RECOGNIZES HIS ERROR

• Aha!• Marc still had the straw in the bottle when he

tried to recycle it. • The straw belongs in the landfill bin so the

recycling bin’s lid did not open, knowing that at least one item did not belong there.• Mark takes out the straw and attempts again.

SUCCESS!

• When Marc brought ONLY the iced tea bottle towards the recycling bin, it flashed green as a sign of correct sorting and opened up for him to throw it away.• In addition, once the bottle was placed in the bin,

the icon on the display was removed.• Also, the pounds counter is updated in real time

after the ice tea bottle was placed and also as other systems around campus have been used.

459.17 lbs646.13 lbs 322.89 lbs

REMAINDER OF ITEMS

• Marc continues by throwing out the items for the compost bin and then the ones for the landfill bin.• One by one the items disappear as they are

thrown out, until no more remain and all of Marc’s waste has been disposed of.• Upon finishing, the system switches into

completed mode, where Marc was thanked for his work.• Then, the system returned to interactive mode.

459.17 lbs646.13 lbs 322.89 lbs

Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep Cornell more sustainable!

Approach the bins with your items out.They will be detected and automatically

sorted for your convenience.

Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep Cornell more sustainable!

CONCLUSION

• Marc successfully threw out all his items in the correct bins.• Without the system, he would’ve most likely not

have taken any time to sort his items and they would’ve all ended up in the trash.• However because of the system automatically

sorting his items, all he had to do was throw them out where he was told they belonged in.

CONCLUSION

• There is a chance of error, but the system will detect if an item is being directed to a bin it does not belong in, and will alert you of the mistake and where the item actually belongs.• You really don’t have to spend much time or

effort.• The hardest part is figuring out where each item

belongs, but it’s all done by the time you get there. • You just have to look up and match the items up.