A prototyped arduino cafe table that can sense dogs for more consistent pup cup handouts
My Role
Technical Designer and physical
prototyper
The Problem
Currently baristas struggle to
consistently hand out pup cups to
dogs due to their busy work
environment, even if it would improve
their cafe’s online rating
How Might We
How might we design and prototype a cafe table
that can sense dogs and effectively
notify the barista of a dog’s presence for consistent pup cup handout?
How to sense a dog
In order for the arduino to sense dogs, my partner and I
had to analyze what would make a dog recognizable
to an arduino sensor
Freeze dried oysters
to attract the dog to the sensor
Known for their woody, faint scent that is pleasant compared to most dog treats and favoritism among dogs, we would place these treats next to the sensor so the dog would come in contact with the device
An ultrasonic sensor
to analyze height
The dog needed to be around 3.6 inches (smallest dog size) to 24 inches (the height of the table)
A humidity & moisture sensor to analyze body temperature
The dog would likely sniff or lick the treats, so the sensor would read the dog’s body temperature which is around 99.5 degrees F and time how long the dog investigates the treats (around a few seconds)
How to notify a barista
We decided to create two indicators that would
inform the barista and the customer of an
incoming pup cup
An Adafruit OLED screen to notify the customer
We then drew our sign “pup cup” with a digital pixel art illustration
A buzzer to send an audio cue to the barista
The buzzer plays a song from a free arduino library that tells the barista there is a dog. This song plays in three intervals for a couple of minutes
A button to turn the system off
Once the barista comes to the table with the pup cup, they can turn the system off and the system will restart itself again in 30 minutes, around the time the customer has finished their coffee and left
Sensor Placement
We put the sensors in a lunch box with drilled
holes for sensor access, and hot glued the lid
to the table so the container could be taken
on and off for maintenance
A success!
After a few tests, we had a working
pup cup system!
Thank you Chile, Frankie, and Doug (all dogs)
