Froodge
Mentors
Duration
Dr. Jignesh Khakhar,
Mayukhini Pande
6 weeks
Froodge is a smart light device that guides the user to choose guilt-free food inside the fridge, keeping in mind the user’s calorie consumption, diet schedule, previous cheat food and time of consumption through app integration. The app and the smart fridge light together complete the ecosystem of mindful consumption.
Keywords
Mindful eating, cheat meal, fridge, object detection, backend data analysis
Context
The following were our key components, which led us design further.
Working from home can result in eight to ten hours of work with no mobility and easy access to food from the work station, allowing for binge eating
Boredom eating leads to unnecessary consumption and that arises commonly between meals
-www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Grazing is a human eating pattern characterised as "the repetitive eating of small or modest amounts of food in an unplanned manner throughout a period of time, and not in response to hunger or satiety cues"
-wikipedia
1/5
Indians are 'Health seekers,(individuals who look for products and services that fit into their way of life
70%
Felt that their health is worse off today than pre-Covid-19
72%
respondents cited lack of time for health management
66%
Cited that the poor taste of health items has been a major obstacle for consuming healthy
2. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM AREA
While reading about consumption, I wanted to know more about the cause, hour for the need, origin and user approach
Snacking is influenced not only by physiological hunger but also by environmental and contextual cues. The visibility and accessibility of food, time of day, emotional state, and everyday routines can influence the urge to eat. In situations of boredom or monotony, snacking can also become a way of taking a break or disrupting routine.
In the Indian household context, the refrigerator represents an important point of interaction with food. It is frequently visible and easily accessible, making it a potential point for influencing food choices and providing contextual information about healthier snacking.
Snippets of Figjam board
2.1 BRAINSTORMING
The Placement
Talking about Indian context, food depending on its consumption and nature is stored in different compartments of the fridge. Leftovers and ready to eat( only have to heat), raw foods like milk, and curd are stored on middle and the top shelf or on one shelf making it convenient, veggies at the bottom-most, sauces and cheese on the door shelf or with leftovers or fridge drawer( present at the top).
The Type
Depending on capacity, door design and shelf organisation, there are tons of fridges available, still the placement of food remains the same. For more number of shelves, the compartments are shared with the ones below.
Adjustable shelves
Nowadays the walls of fridge comes with extra hooves making the shelves adjustable.
Snippets of Figjam board
2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Semi-structured interviews provide an open ended approach for discussing the subject.
2.3 USER PERSONA
Semi-structured interviews led to two types of personas within controlled eating habit.
Getting to know different user personas, I narrowed down my user space to
People who are beginners and wish to make changes in their food consumption and want to follow a diet
2.3 KEY INSIGHTS
Break Monotonocity
A scheduled cheat meal is a must when following a plan; it breaks the monotony.
Challenges in Sustaining a Diet Plan
Users find it difficult to consistently follow a structured diet plan when everyday constraints such as increased hunger, late-day fatigue, or unavailable ingredients disrupt their planned routine.
Behavioral Nudges
Timely, contextual nudges can influence users’ food decisions by making healthier options more visible, accessible, and easier to act on.
3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we cope with hunger which arises due to boredom?How might we reduce interaction with the fridge which arises due to boredom?
How might we assist people to consume food from the fridge mindfully?
People found difficult to resist in the evening and prefer ready-to-eat food, even though they follow a diet throughout the day.
3. PRECEDENT STUDY
We are focusing on positive influence on user rather than negative and demotivation influence. The nudge we want is visual cue that primes the brain to make motor action. Points to be considered.
Choice archetecture: Everything cannot be neutral the presentation of choices influence users. How do we influence user?
Libertarian Paternalism: Help people make better choices without taking away their ability to choose.
Good nudging should preserve people's freedom to choose.
WHY WOULD IT WORK?
Top Down behavior
Lets one think from mind and does not rely on body instincts. The lights makes one context aware and facilitate thoughtful contemplation.
Accountability factor
Even the strongest-willed people run out of juice eventually. At times, one is internally motivated enough and only needs to track their growth. This can be done by influencing the options over other or nudging the user.
4.1 PRODUCT SKETCHES AND RENDER
Ideations
Idea 1: The lights moves with eye movement or hand movement
Cons: An eye-movement camera is difficult to position, whereas hand detection is easier to implement and can be mounted alongside the lights.
Idea 2: The shelf color changes on wrong selection of food.
Cons: There can be trial and error fatigue, the user might not get anything out of it. This case the user will not be context aware.
Different types of light were considered to get a spot light effect. Exploration started with MEG lights, combination LEDs with different types of lenses.
Placement and choice of lenses was the important part of prototyping to get the feel of spotlight.
Exploration included magnifying lens, fresnel lens, clip on phone camera wide lens, led holder.
The search for spot light effect ended with ended with combination of LED SMDs(Surface-Mount-Devices) with lenses.
Intensity of meg lights & SME
Pocket magnifying glass, clip on lens, led holder and Fresnel lens in order
The light selected should follow parameters:
High CRI (color Rendering Index) around 90+ to get food colors close to natural light setup.
Soft edges of focus light to avoid shadow.
Light intensity suffucient enough to focus but in existing fridge light.
4.2 USER MAPPING
Below is the user mapping with the device for two different user personas
4.3 WORKING OF THE ECOSYSTEM
Assumptions made:
The user is equiped with phone or watch.
Working:
Froodge sets meal time range and the time in-between are snacking time range.
Guides you to wholesome meal if you already have met your calorie intake, else guides you to indulgence food.
Checks the time stamp if the fridge in opened frequently.
4.4 THE ECOSYSTEM
4.4 THE SCREENS
CONCEPT VIDEO
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