From Office Workers working hard at their 9 to 5 job to School Students spending time revising for exams and researching for assignments, the Desk has been an essential piece of furniture at the hands of humankind since the 17th century that has ultimately set in stone its main purpose of providing a clear workspace for accommodating the items necessary for completing tasks. As time progresses to the Present Day, desk products have evolved in various number of ways as they continue to meet the never-ending needs of users. Our team have banded together and came up with the revolutionary idea of Deskacito. You may asking yourself, what is Deskacito? To simply put it, Deskacito is a Smart Desk which revolutionizes the main function of ordinary desks by improving security and organisation within the workplace as they are recognized as two of the key aspects of maintaining a positive work environment.
DESKACITO
UN SUSTAINABILITY DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Empowered and Driven:
Delivering Solutions for Global Issues
UN Sustainable Goal 7: Deskacito aims to achieve Affordable and Clean Energy since the desk functionality will manage electrical power usage through the implementation of the Proximity Feature of activating and deactivating the Smart Desk system appropriately when the user is in the vicinity of the Smart Desk. By establishing this, we can guarantee that our users benefit financially as they will never forget to turn of the desk system and save money at the same time.
UN Sustainable Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth will be improved through the existence of Deskacito as it encourages users, especially office workers, to organise their workspace via object identification and smart mechanisms. Through this, we will be able to improve the levels of productivity and security in the environment that Deskacito is situated in due to establishing a more organised and secure desk experience.
UN Sustainable Goal 9: Our Smart Desk applies to building a resilient build, promoting an inclusive and sustainable environment, and fostering innovation towards re-shaping the main function of a work desk as our team decides to take a leap forward into achieving rapid social development by preventing scenarios such as theft in work offices, which will ensure that the workplace is made into a safer environment.
DESIGN STORY
THE PROCESS
PROTOTYPE DESIGN
“The Deskacito Prototype involves only utilising one of the compartments for the Smart Desk with technology we are using, whilst the rest such as overall structure and another compartment are not included yet. Our Prototype only tests if the compartment unlocks and opens when the specific item from the programmed category that we want it to identify is identified from the Raspberry Pi Camera Module.
There are two other separate circuits involved with one being for the Proximity Sensing feature which is implemented using an Ultrasound Sensor that is programmed with a set range in which certain distances detected will trigger the system to turn on or off. Another circuit is dedicated to the NFC Authentication feature which is carried out using NFC tags and an NFC reader. The main idea is that it will serve as a factor of authentication before the user can initiate the other features such as the object identification or the proximity sensing feature. Simply, NFC Tags that are recognised as registered in the system will grant the user access and proven evident via the Green LED and LCD, whilst unrecognisable NFC tags are not granted access and are shown evident via Red LED and LCD.”
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
PLEDGE
Impact on the market
``Without a doubt Deskacito will have many competitors that will be looking to adopt the idea of a Smart Desk for both home and office use. The main competitors that would be involved would be are companies such as Ikea, Wickes, and B&Q, with a direct competitor being Slyde Innovations, as this is a company that creates Smart Shelving with RFID and Digital Locking to improve the overall function of Desks. The Smart Furniture Market would be the area in which Deskacito will categorise itself in as it revolves around modern furnishings designed to include embedded technology, sensors, and connectivity features to improve their overall functionality.
However, even with all of these above competitors we are confident that our product can make a dent in the market with the addition of multiple features. Some of these features include motion sensors to allow the desk to know when a user is working at it, NFC tags to access the compartments, object identification to allow for improved organisation, with future features set to include height adjustment for the desk and battery charging in the future.
Theoretically, the university (BCU) would be our main source of funding, as our minimum viable product would approximately cost £95.24. Due to only being students, having a budget of around £100 for our product would be difficult, considering this doesn’t include the cost of the actual material to house the hardware, being the wood itself. With BCU giving us a small loan, we would be able to have a steady income being provided to maintain a budget.``
RESULTS
FINAL PRODUCT
“As you begin to start using Deskacito, there will be an NFC reader that would remain on the table, that the user can use with their accompanied NFC tag. When it comes to the tag, only a specific tag will work in order to access the drawer, otherwise, the tag will not activate the Arduino. On top of that, a Red LED would glow to indicate to the user that the tag is not the specified tag that is recognised. If the correct tag is scanned, then a Green LED would glow.
Once that happens, a signal is sent to the Arduino, which would then use the Ultrasonic sensor.
This sensor would try to detect any obstruction that would be under the desk. This would monitor if there were any obstructions caused by the user, which is the actual design of the Ultrasonic sensor. This is because it would detect users accessing the desk, as idle users (People not sitting in the desk) would cause the doors not to open under any circumstance, allowing for extra security when it comes to our product.
The doors, once everything comes into play, will open via a linear actuator, which rotates gears and hinges to automatically open the door, not requiring any handles, reducing inequalities with the doors. Objects could also be scanned via a camera. This camera would scan any object in front of it, before opening a certain drawer based on the product. Upon placing the product inside of the drawer, the user can scan the NFC reader again, the linear actuator would begin to retract, which would then lock into the hinge of the solenoid lock, holding the door shut.”
Results 1
Results 2