Two students at the University of Munich have developed an Arduino-powered “personal energy orb” (PEO) designed to encourage users to go outside and exercise instead of spending excess time on the computer. The orb monitors what designers Janko Hofmann and Fabian Pammer call a “virtual energy level,” a metric they invented to measure someone’s time spent in front of a computer against healthy physical activity. This “virtual energy level” depletes with computer usage, and can be recharged by going for a bike ride.
Arduino-powered Personal Energy Orb annoys you into exercising
Two students at the University of Munich have developed an Arduino-powered “personal energy orb” (PEO) designed to encourage users to go outside and exercise instead of spending excess time on the computer.
Two students at the University of Munich have developed an Arduino-powered “personal energy orb” (PEO) designed to encourage users to go outside and exercise instead of spending excess time on the computer.
The device does more than induce guilt with a huge red light — as the user’s virtual energy level decreases, a Windows app also decreases your cursor speed until it reaches the lowest possible setting. The goal of the project is to motivate users, using a combination of guilt and frustration, to get people outside and exercising.
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