Good day , welcome to the Smart storage blog.
Firstly I would like to express my thank and surprise to the organizers for choosing my entry, so here goes:
The problem:
I follow a widely practiced storage philosophy: place it on a flattish surface. This philosophy had a few floors (see what I did there), firstly there is fairly limited amount of flat surface in your home/office, secondly flat surfaces are by definition distributed in a horizontal plane, meaning that most thing you store are out of reach.
Moving around to find thing is annoying for the conventionally abled and can be difficult for the differently abled, for instance those wheel chair bound, those with dwarfism, people with limited use or one or both arms.
With difficult economic time people are living in smaller houses and companies are fitting more people into smaller spaces.
The Idea:
While floor space is shrinking the ceiling height remains the same so we should use this space for storage. The Smart storage is an intelligent vertical basket storage solution. The idea it to use the space above us which we cannot reach and intelligently control the basket position based on time of day.
Additionally I would like to add a weight sensor to some or all of the baskets to notify the user if some consumable is running low or if some thing has not been replaced in the basket.
Scenario 1:
A culinary based example:
Smart storage brain: hmmm... it is 6 am the humans will likely wake up soon I should rotate such that the breakfast basket is open, sugar, coffee tea and cereals are in this basket.
later that day
Smart storage brain: alright breakfast was a smashing success but the basket it a little on the light side maybe Billy left the sugar on the table again! that is it I have had enough I am turning on the LED! that'll teach him.
later that day
Smart storage brain: Well its 9 am Bob will be getting home from gym soon he will need a healthy snack, rotating to the fruit basket. I do not need to worry that this baskets weight changes.
later still
Smart storage brain: Noon Noooooon I like noon, it sounds like moon, some one will be coming to make lunch soon I better move to the non perishables basket, or as I call it: the space food.
even later
Smart storage brain: The kids will be back from school soon I must remember that I am not allowed to rotate to the sweets basket.
even later still
Smart storage brain: dinner time cooking is about to happen. better get the herbs and spices ready
Or in the workshop.
Smart storage brain: My proximity sensor is tingling.. Bob is about to leave the work shop but the screw driver basket is telling me it is too light. Battle stations, Buzzer go, LED on!!
The Future:
A nice further addition which is unfortunately out of the scope of this project, would be to have RFID tag reader and voice commands.
Fred is blind but he is luck enough to have the smart storage unit from the future (or an alternate reality).
Fred attaches an RFID tag to his scissors and puts the scissors in a basket.
Smart storage brain: hmm there is something new in this basket "Fred, what have to put in the basket"
Fred: "my Scissors"
Smart storage brain: "scissors got it just ask me for scissors when ever you need them, I will keep track of which basket you place them in and make them available when ever you need them".
