Calor is a smart shower faucet that safely and efficiently delivers your desired water temperature. It also raises awareness of water use and guides you to a shorter shower via suggestions and reward systems.
As seen on:
Although faucet designs come out each year with new form and material reconsideration, the shower experience still remains inefficient and also reveals other problems.
I also prototype the temperature setting mechanism with Arduino and visualize results in Processing. Check out the code on Github.
Introduction & Motivation
Due to inconsistent models and seasons, an average 2.7-time unnecessary adjustment causes time and water waste
There are over 3000 scalding cases each year and over 90% incidents occur at home
Showers take up 17% of water households use in the U.S., 3rd usage after washing machines and toilets
More than 36 states are expecting water shortage in the next few years
Facing these everyday hassles and public concerns, I envision a smart, safe and personalized future shower experience:
By disassembling a shower fixture, valve and cartridge, I understand how a faucet works behind the wall. Combining the market research findings, I go with a retrofitting solution that makes a typical shower both better and affordable.
I run a series of form studies while investigating in new cartridge mechanisms that could with the new interaction - a familiar and nostalgic knob-turning method.
Given the precision control in setting temperature, the interface on the faucet becomes essential, so the information visualization and different variations I explore need to display quick and sufficient information without too much complexity.
Sony Xperia and Samsung Galaxy S4/5 have already shown waterproof electronics, which demonstrates the plausibility of encapsulation for Calor.