DIGITAL FRUIT BOWL PROTOTYPE

Visualising the natural ripening process by measuring the ethylene concentration.

This interactive fruit bowl has the potential to reduce food waste because it gives the user control over the ripening process of her fruit. With this control the user can decide when her fruits are ripe enough. Even though the interactive fruit bowl lets the user control her fruits’ ripeness, the ripening process of fruit is still a natural process which the interactive fruit bowl cannot control, only visualise. To remind the user of how fruits always mature and affect each other, the lights from the chambers interact in between the chambers. A higher level of ethylene in one chamber will affect the fruits in the chamber next to it by ambient lightening. The interactive fruit bowl shows this by letting the light from chambers with lower amounts of ethylene be absorbed by some light from the chambers with higher levels of ethylene next to it. By thus showing fruits as a natural ripening object, the respect for the fruits, which it takes to handle them, stays intact. Our vision of reducing food waste through this interactive fruit bowl is therefore addressed in two ways: It allows us to control the ripening process of fruits and, furthermore, the user becomes more aware of how to handle perishable foods.

The eye-opener

We experienced, that we were able to detect ethylene by using cheap alchohol sensors.
This is interesting, because the alcohol sensors are much cheaper than ethylene sensors.