HIVE - SMART STOOL
Hive is a smart stool for bars that detects occupancy, acts as a wireless food-ready beacon and adds general ambient lighting to a venue. Arrive at a bar and know which stools are taken at a glance as the interior lighting in hive signals how long it has been unoccupied. Hive can be used in place of wireless food-ready beacons by signalling with colour and pattern when your food order is ready, or can aid service staff in locating your table. As ambient lighting, Hive stools can create a unique and ever changing atmosphere, including choreographed displays and per table colour themes.
- DATE- May, 2015
- SOFTWARE-Solidworks, programming (C), Keyshot, Photoshop
- HARDWARE- 3D printer, laser cutter, electronics
PROCESS
The body of the stool is constructed from 72 alternating stacked pieces of wood in a hexagonal pattern. This repetition, in terms of manufacture, assembly and accumulating errors, benefited greatly from the use of 3D printed jigs that saved time, removed human error and eliminated the need for measuring and marking. Designing Hive first in CAD allowed the process of construction and jig use to be trialled on a scale model, then resized and repeated for the final stool.
