Bajibot’s Project: B-Hive

OK here’s something a bit different.  Bajibot, a NY based digital creative production shop recently revealed their 2013 Spring party initiative labeled “Project: B-Hive”.    In an effort to connect the digital world to the physical, Bajibot wanted party guests to “take something away”.  The creative technology team at Bajibot concepted and built a small, simple Arduino driven dispenser that had a built in color sensor.  3 different color cards were handed out to guests at the party & after people inserted their card into the B-Hive device, it would dispense a wood crafted “b” keychain in the according color.

Bajibot’s 3D team designed and built the entire B-Hive in 3DS Max first, with all textures, precise measurements, gear mechanism and electrical components. Data was then being exported and sent to a laser cutting partner and had every single B-Hive piece cut out in plywood. Puzzle style!

B-Hive’s color sensor is a simple combination of photo resistor and an RGB LED. The LED light is isolated and points directly at the inserted card. It would blink Red, Green or Blue and the light from each blink was then reflected and read by photo cell. Arduino then compared readings to pre-recorded values for each card variation and dispensed a “b” keychain in that particular color when a match was found.  Quite an interesting way to give Bajibot’s party guests some take home swag.