Bloom by BitsNBolts

Bloom is an interactive desktop flower decoration that syncs with your Apple Watch health data so that it is wilted when you're not meeting your daily fitness goals and "blooms" when you're on track.

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Tracks: Healthcare, Entertainment

Bloom targets healthcare because it is a desk-topper that reminds you to go workout based on your current activity for the day and personal health goals you set on your apple watch. Bloom is a fun reminder to stay on top of your exercise, promoting both physical and mental health!

Bloom is also connected to entertainment because it can be aesthetically pleasing addition to your dorm room and fun to interact with. You are rewarded for exercising by seeing your flower "bloom" again and reminded to take a break from hours-on-end of studying when your flower looks wilted.

Inspiration

Amidst a busy academic schedule, it's hard to find time to exercise. We wanted to create something that serves as a gentle reminder for students to take a break and go exercise that isn't just a phone notification or an alarm.

How it Works

Bloom is a flower that wilts (bends down) when you have not hit your fitness goals, and it blooms (stands straight up) when you do hit your fitness goals! To do this, it tracks your health metrics and then tightens or loosens a spool of thread that runs through the stem of the flower, making the flower move up and down in response.

Learning Take-Aways

While working on Bloom during this hackathon, we learned the importance of dividing work based on skillset. Our group had a combination of electrical engineers, programmers, and mechanical engineers.

We had the electrical engineers in the group focus on software hardware interface. The programmers worked on syncing the data from Apple Watch to a program that can then be used to control the flower. The mechanical engineers designed, 3D printed, and assembled the flower, and hardware housing.

Allocating the tasks based on skillset helped bloom come together in the short time that we had.

Building Process

Our building process included the following:

  • Design stem, petals, and flower head
  • 3D print stem, petals, flower head, other parts
  • Connect HealthKit with iOS app, originally done in python
  • Create portable power supplies by connecting batteries in series for servo and ESP32
  • Integrate servo with Arduino Uno, checking for bidirectionality and continuous motion
  • Switch servo to ESP32 microcontroller, coding in C++ in Arduino IDE to integrate health app info
  • BLE packet + stable live control
  • Packaging + video pitch + + 30s demo loop

Challenges We Faced

  • Motor selection
  • Choosing between microcontrollers: ESP 32, Arduino, NRF52840
  • Getting the ESP32 to connect to wifi
  • Providing sufficient power supply for the ESP32
  • The mechanics of the flower stem and initially making the flower stem too long
  • Integrating the spool and motor into the pot design

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