Construction of an Interactive Charity Box - Case Study Example

CONSTRUCTION OF AN INTERACTIVE CHARITY BOX al Affiliation) CONSTRUCTION OF AN INTERACTIVE CHARITY BOX INTRODUCTION A charity box is an instrument that is placed at strategic positions so that people who are willing to donate money to charity can access them and use them. Those who need charity use these boxes. The place them at positions where people can access so that they can donate their money by placing them inside the boxes. This report captures the creation of a charity box, which is interactive with the donors (Rodgers, 1996). This charity box is able to detect when money has been put in the box, and give a feedback to the donor. In this way, the beneficiaries can pass their comments or communicate to the donors. The interactive boxes can interact with the donors by giving a feedback when one has donated his or her money. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Many organizations and groups of people around the world depend on money to carry out their businesses. Most of them do not have enough money to run their programs or daily businesses. This makes them depend on charity and donations. A very effective way of getting donations from the public is by the use of charity boxes. The groups of people who need donations place charity boxes where other people who are willing to give to charity can access them. On the other hand, there are people who are willing to give their money to charity but they do not have time to find people who need charity. These people prefer giving their donations through charity boxes. Some people prefer anonymity while donations and it makes them use charity boxes to give their donations. Generally, so many people to either give or collect donations from people use charity boxes widely. The current charity boxes are not interactive in any way. They are just wooden boxes used for collection of charity. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Appreciation is a very important aspect when it comes to help. Many people feel good and are motivated to help even more especially when they are appreciated. Most of these people who depend on charity wish that they had a way to communicate back to the donors, and most importantly appreciate their efforts and help. This is only possible if the donors are well known. It becomes very difficult when it comes to those who give their donations via charity boxes. They are usually the majority group that gives the donations and unfortunately, they give anonymously. It becomes very hard for the beneficiaries of the charity to appreciate them. This is where the necessity of an interactive charity box comes in (Wilcher, 2012). STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVE The main objective of this project is to come up with a charity box, which is interactive with the donors. Another objective is to enable the donors to be able to communicate back to the donors and appreciate their donations, to encourage them. METHODOLOGY Equipment used The equipment used in creation of the interactive charity box includes the following: Wood Wood gum Speaker LED PIR sensor Arduino board Woods are pieces of timber that are used to make up the box. The wood gum is a material that is used to join wood parts together. LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a two-lead semiconductor source of light which is used for emitting light. PIR sensor (Passive Infrared sensor) is an electronic sensor, which measures infrared lights, which radiates from objects in its field of view. It is used for motion detecting. Arduino board is an electronic, which is able to sense the environment by receiving input from sensors and is able to affect the surrounding by controlling lights, playing of sound tracks and other actuators like motors. Procedure Wood and other items that were necessary for building the interactive charity box were bought and taken to the university 3D workshop where all the work was to be done. The LED and arduino board were also bought (Klein, 1997).Wood gum from the university 3D workshop was used to put the wood together and join the wood parts in order to form a box. A small hole was left where money will be dropped into the box. The PIR sensor was coded and installed close to the opening of the box so that it would be able to sense the motion of the money as it is dropped into the box. The arduino board was also programmed and put into the box that it would receive the inputs from the PIR sensor and control the LED lights and speaker. Many LED lights were put on the outside of the box at random and they were connected to the arduino board. A speaker with a recorded sound track was also installed and connected to the arduino board. The interactive charity box construction was completed and a test was done on the box. Money was dropped into the box three times and observations were made. OBSERVATION When the box was complete, money was dropped into it and some LED lights went on and displayed the message ‘THANK YOU’, and this was accompanied by a sound track from the speaker. When the process was repeated, the message ‘THANK YOU’ was displayed again. When it was repeated for the third time, the same message was displayed. EXPLANATION The wood was used in creation of the box and the wood gum was used to join the wood parts together. An opening was left so that it would be used when inserting money into the box. The PIR sensor was put close to the opening of the box so that it would be able to detect when money is dropped into the box. The PIR sensor was connected to the arduino board so that the arduino board may get the inputs from the PIR sensor. After receiving the input, the arduino board was to affect its environment by commanding the lights of the LEDs to light and the speaker to play the recorded sound. The LED light were put randomly on the outside of the box to enable it display various kinds of messages by allowing some lights to be on while others to be off in a pattern that would lead to creation of words. When money is not inserted, some of the LED lights could be on to display a message, for example, ‘DONATE TO CHARITY’. When a donor inserts money into the box, the PIR sensor would sense the money and pass the message to the arduino board which will in turn cause some LEDs to light to display a message, for example, ‘THANK YOU’, and cause a sound to play accompanying the message. This process was used to interact with the donors. CHALLENGES For these charity boxes to operate in this manner, they will require a constant supply of power that would be used to power up the light emitting diodes and all the other machinery to function. They need to be near a constant power source for them to work. It is also very hard for the PIR sensors to distinguish between money and other materials. The same message would be displayed even if some other material other than money would be dropped into the charity box. CONCLUSION A charity box is an instrument that is placed at strategic positions so that people who are willing to donate money to charity can access them and use them. Those who need charity use these boxes. The box need to be place at positions where people can access so that they can donate their money by placing them inside the boxes. This project was successful in creating an interactive charity box. The PIR sensors have been used to sense motion of money and pass the signals to the arduino board, which leads to the lighting of the light emitting diodes in a pattern to display ‘THANK YOU’, and the playing of a sound track to accompany the lights. It is able to solve the problems stated above. The charity boxes can be made interactive. It is also possible for the charity beneficiaries to reach out to their donors and appreciate their help. With this attitude and because of this technology, most donors will feel encouraged and motivated to give more. This project was a success with little cost and a great affect to be made. RECOMMENDATIONS These charity boxes should be adopted and used worldwide by those collecting charity so that they be able to communicate back to the people supporting them and thank them and make them feel that their donations are appreciated (Gertz & Justo, 2012).Further advancements can also be made on these devices so as to come up with the most efficient. Advancement can be made in the area of power to come up with a self-powering interactive charity box. Further advancements can be made to ensure that the sensors are only able to sense money rather than every other material when dropped into the box REFERENCES Gertz, E., & Justo, P. 2012. Environmental monitoring with Arduino. Sebastopol, CA: OReilly Media. Klein, L. A. 1997. Millimeter-wave and infrared multisensor design and signal processing. Boston: Artech House. Rodgers, P. 1996. The charity box speaks back: profile of an Irish aid agency. Maynooth: Sociological Association of Ireland. Wilcher, D. 2012. Learn electronics with Arduino. Berkeley, CA: Apress; Read More