Assignment 2 hand-in A: Write-up

For this project I plan to design a interface for children that brings awareness of how much power their house hold is using and how to save power.  To do this I plan to design a creature which “lives” off the power that the house hold saves over a period of time.  This creature is will be contained on a portable device such as an ipod or handheld game console.  The interface will have to be simple to understand but be able to show multiple things at once, such as how much power you are saving and way to save more power.

Through the children using the interface I hope to also change the way that the people around them see energy.  As children can be very annoying and so by giving them a goal, like looking after a creature, they will strive to achieve this and will tell their families to save energy just to keep the creature happy.

For this to work there must be a way for the device to check the power usage at least daily.  The technology needed for this may come from digital power meters but I want to be more specific than that and measure individual applications of energy and how saving on say heating will keep the creature from freezing etc.