How am I powered? is a prototype for Paulig Muki. In the Android app it shows information about from where the energy you are using is coming, be it wind, sun, nuclear etc. In addition to this it also synchronizes with your Paulig Muki cup, so you can watch it while enjoying your energizing coffee moment! E-paper display won’t even consume any power if you leave it on!
Developed during Junction 2016.
The inspiration for this project came in first hand from Paulig Muki. We thought that it was an interesting concept and wanted to implement something for it. In addition to this we walked around the venue at Junction and found the GE energy challenge. This challenge was meant to get people aware of how their energy is produced. We saw that there is a good opportunity in combining these, thus How am I powered? was born.
This is an app that shows information about from where energy comes in Finland. In addition to this it integrates with Paulig Muki coffee cup and pushes the information to it also.
Based on Paulig’s example app we continued to implement our own functionality. We mainly used Android Studio for development.
None of us had done mobile app development before. This meant that there were many new things to take into consideration even though it is a really small app. Another challenge is that the cup is powered by heat difference, so you had to swap cold and hot water in it to get it working.
- We actually got something to show up on the mug
- We made a functioning Android application with no previous experience
- Having great fun at Junction!
That even though you have no experience in a field doesn’t mean that you can’t get things done. We learned that we can quickly adapt and get something done.
The next steps in developing the app would be better integration with APIs from Finnish power suppliers and the existing Paulig Muki app. Energy consumption and production statistics could be shown on bigger e-paper display in every house. In addition to this the data could be sent over something else than your phone, for example a micro controller. This enables us to keep up to date data on the screen 24/7 with next to no power consumption!
Api example the app is based on: https://github.com/gustavpaulig/Paulig-Muki
Icons showed on mug are from: https://icons8.com