TimeHue
A delightful timer that allows the user to monitor food freshness at a glance.
| Product Design
| Physical Prototype
2023.04-05
Class Project
Katherine Liu
Charon Kuo
Charlene Lu
Stephanie He
Laser-cutting
3d-printing
Silicone mold making
Research
Ideation
Prototype
HOW MIGHT WE
Keep track of food freshness with little maintenance?
In April, 2024, we visited Pedro, a widower in his 80’s living in his one-bedroom in Berkeley.
Introspective and thoughtful, Pedro is always eager to learn about new cultures and cuisines despite his age.
During our talk and observation, we noticed that Pedro struggled daily to track the freshness of his meals within his cluttered, treasure-box-like refrigerator. Given the challenges of aging, it was a big hurdle for him to remember and identify food spoilage.
OUR SOLUTION
A delightful timer on a reusable silicone cover
TimeHue includes a food-safe silicone cover and a set of modular plugs, which offer a passive visual alert when food begins to spoil.
Designed with ease of use in mind, especially for individuals like Pedro, TimeHue is hassle-free, reusable, and adds a bit delight inside a refrigerator.
MATERIAL & FORM
Color-changing silica beads inside of customized shapes of plugs
We safely sealed desiccant silica beads inside the plugs. Commonly available, desiccants are known for absorbing environmental moisture. Some include color-changing dyes to indicate moisture exposure and can be reverted by simply microwaved.
As the beads absorb the inherent moisture inside of a refrigerator, it turns green at a predictable rate; when heated in microwave, it dries and returns to orange.
To add flexibility, we created customized plugs for various food types, tailored to their specific salt and moisture content. Each plug has a different density of small holes on its surface, controlling the exposure of the desiccant to air based on the food's characteristics.
The shapes of plugs are carefully selected: toast, orange, flame, and boiled egg. All with orange as their inherent color, these plugs transmit a signal of “abnormal” and “rotten” when they start to turn green, which serve as an intuitive visual language for the user to be notified about food spoilage
USER FLOW
Put TimeHue cover on the container and store the food in refrigerator.
Identify which food to consume first by picking the “greenest” plug.
Reheat the food with lid in the microwave. The lid is now ready for next use.
