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Meeting room Indicator

An in-house IOT project at Moniteurs, Berlin with Anna, Dinah, Franziska, Julian, Renee

With the working desks on the first floor and the meeting room on the ground, calling a meeting has always been a chore at Moniteurs. 

Now calling a meeting at Moniteurs is as simple as "putting a job on the table".

Reuse + Recycle

The meeting room model is completely made of recyclable material (except the electrical components). The structure and chairs are handmade out of reused cardboard. The white table and black tags are 3D printed using recyclable filaments.

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The Concept

The idea originated from a phrase - "on the table" (meaning: being discussed or considered; usage: There are several important issues on the table.)

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Skeuomorphism is the design concept of making items represented resemble their real-world counterparts. Here, we built a skeuomorphic meeting room, i.e. similar to how topics are brought into the meeting room for discussions, here, NFC tags (representative of a job) are dropped into the model room and the back end notifies (on slack) the team associated with the job.

How it works

  1. NFC tag is placed on the reader.​

  2. Reader is concealed inside the table.

  3. Reader is connected to a micro controller using Dupont cables.

  4. The micro controller is linked to the WLAN using an onboard Wi-Fi card.

  5. Upon NFC tag detection, the controller is programmed to ping to a custom slack bot. 

  6. This in-turn posts the data stored on the tag to the slack channel.

The Process

A replica of the real meeting room was constructed out of reused cardboard. 

Details like windows, heaters, and furniture were also made by hand proportionally. 

The Process

Connection map was sketched out and components were listed. Mixing and matching various parts to devise the best contraption. Having the microcomputer plugged into a java enabled laptop, the functionality were tested live by trial and error as code was written.

NodeMCU ESP-32 Board

(programmable microcomputer)

Being the heart of the contraption, it connects everything together and to the Wi-Fi. 

NFC Reader & NFC Tags

The tags store a string of data (can be re-written) which are identified, read and transmitted to the microcomputer by the reader.

LEDs

A feedback system where it tells the user that the recognition is successful and the connection is active and transmitting to slack.

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Printing custom modelled parts to house components, making it discreet and ensuring an optimal fit.

Assembly

Printing and assembly went on simultaneously as the set up was on constant improvisation. 3D models were designed using TinkerCAD and printed directly from the connected Prusa printer. 

Calling a meeting

Step 1

Pick a job tag from the stack.

(Moniteurs adopts a project management system where all jobs are designated and identified with three letter name codes)

Step 2

Double check for the specified job.

(Calling the wrong team by mistake could be quite disastrous. Especially during tight deadlines. It's always good to check twice)

Step 3

Place it on the table top.

(The light feedback makes sure that the transmission is successful. If you don't see lights, try moving the tag around. It's normal for prototypes to behave buggy.)

Step 4

Wait for people to arrive.

(Maybe you can go make yourself some coffee by the time they finish that sentence they were typing and descent a floor to finally reach the meeting room.)

The Team

Renee

3D Printing, 

3D Modelling

Franziska

3D Printing, 

Presentation

Anna

Coding, 

Back-end dev

Julian

Technical supervision

Dinah

Documentation

Anfas

Concept, prototyping

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