Independence Project 2021

Rationale: Phone addiction is a common problem in today’s world. Limiting phone usage has been a huge challenge for all of us who are trying to have a work-life balance. We use phones for working and entertainment purposes. However, we also have a life outside our phones. How do we balance our lives between work and entertainment using phones and staying with our real lives?  This problem has become more prominent among college students than other age groups. Most college students are at the age that free of parental control compared to when they were younger. However, they also lack experience in knowing what they want or what is their priority in their lives. Their current life stage makes them more vulnerable to the phone addiction problem.  For this problem, I conducted interviews with some students with phone addiction. Based on the interview results, I came up with a problem statement which is college students with phone addiction do not know how to control the amount of...

After a few weeks of thinking, I decided to use simple melodies for the sound effects of my product. Here I will use software that I learned in year 1 - FL Studio to make sound effects. In order to let users know what this wireless charger is for, I decided to add a slogan to the body. Here are the slogans I came up with: A fulfilling day starts with self-regulation Putting down the phone is the first step to self-regulation Self-regulation is the key to success At first, I wanted to put the slogan on it, but then for aesthetic reasons, I wanted to put the product's name and slogan under the fuselage. But I think I still need to put some instructions on the body so that users will know how to use this product, so I plan to add a slogan with similar instructions under the wireless charging logo. Top： Bottom: After deciding on the slogan and logo, I started to test engrave. Meanwhile, I also use laser machine to cut out 2 small pieces of acrylic to test. I used sandpaper to sand its ...

I spent a day this week learning how to use a CNC machine with Ron while optimizing the model as I didn't want my product to be too thick. In the beginning, my model did not reserve the position of the upper cover and the bottom cover, resulting in a very thick finished product. After that, I reserved the position of the upper cover and the bottom cover. Later, because the CNC machine couldn't engrave the bottom part, I chose to engrave the bottom part and gave up engraving the upper part. I choose the bottom part because the bottom part has slopes. After that, I spent another day carving and sanding the body of the wireless charger. Using CNC machine to carve the wireless charger body: While I was waiting for the body part, I used the laser machine to cut out the charger's bottom part: After the carving is done: Then I used vibrating power cutter to cut out the body from the wood:   After that I used vibrating power sander sanded its surface and the outcome at the below: A...

I tried to change a bit my concept because after I listen to my lecturer's feedback. My lecturer said it's better to have a sound effect when the user is self-regulating. So, I was thinking if the phone dock has 2 modes, one is normal wireless charging, another one is self-regulation wireless charging. Therefore, I can have more sound effects to apply in my product, which are Open SFX, Self-regulation SFX, Warning SFX, and Shut Down SFX. However, after consulting the lecturer, my lecturer said this would be different from what I originally intended.  Because now users have options, they can choose not to use the self-regulation feature. But my purpose is to let people know how to self-regulate. So, I gave up using this concept and using the previous concept. At the same time, I received some feedback from my peers, some of them said that the prototype 2.0's light line should be wider. Some of them think the outcome will too big, and suggested I can create another version of...