Vendobox

One of my most favorite projects from my time at SCAD while I was pursuing an MFA in Industrial design. VENDOBOX is a vending machine that accepts a bespoke currrency (vendocoins) that were hidden throughout my school building. Lucky recipients get a box filled with essentials that help students survive those grueling final weeks of the semester.

Duration:
10 weeks

Team:
Prof. Michael Felix, Ashwath Anand, Amar Chadgar, Jose Bertero, Eva dunn, Shreya Mehta, Alexandra patron, Aneesa L, Xioawen Xao, Chen Shuai, Aaron Mendoza

Role:
creative technologist, teachings assistant, project manager

Tech stack:
physical computing with raspberry pi && python

Project Details
VENDOBOX is a vending machine that accepts a bespoke currrency (vendocoins) that were hidden throughout my school building. Lucky recipients get a box filled with essentials that help students survive those grueling final weeks of the semester.

Project Outcome

Process
The first stage involved learning to work the raspberry pi and migrating from the arduino to the pi. Lil' buddy, a housing for the pi with room for a screen, cables, a keyboard and mouse was created by Jose.

The following video shows some of the initial testing process. This includes running some initial tests with the RFId reader, the ultrasonic sensor, making the harware communicate with prototype GUI animations, testing motors and plenty of incremental iterations.