Infiniti asked our agency to participate in pitching some re-branding work. As a part of our pitch strategy we were tasked with coming up with ways in which Infiniti’s in-car technology could be applied to other areas of life. The idea was to show the usefulness of Infiniti’s technology through a series of clever stunts and installations. One such technology is their “intelligent brake assist” meant to help drivers avoid accidents by applying the brakes automatically if the car detects a collision is imminent.
Enter, the shopping cart. Who hasn’t been “healed” by one of these things in the grocery store? So we built a shopping cart that can’t run into anything.
The Team
Patrick and I worked together to come up with several different interactive scenarios for several different Infiniti technologies. In the end we landed on our strongest idea, the brake assisted shopping cart. We worked simultaneously to produce a prototype that could be pitched in a client meeting as well as some demo carts that could be flown to Hong Kong for the final meeting.
My Role
Concept and production
Technologies
- Arduino Uno with custom servo driving shield and power supply regulator
- Servos with grippers
- Pololu stepper motor driver
- Parallax sonar range finder
- duct tape
The Process
We started first with a cart from the mail room, producing a prototype with duct tape and bungee chords in under 24 hours.
We refined our design until the pitch and ended up actually doing the presentation:
The client loved the idea. They requested that we bring the prototypes to Hong Kong so the rest of the team could see. So we produced two mini version of the idea (always good to have a backup with pitches).
We started by make a modular pack that could fit inside the shopping cart’s shell:
We then removed the stepper motor braking system and designed a new system that included a single servo with a gripper arm that clamps onto the axel shaft of the cart.
and the pack:
Here I am testing the (almost finished) prototype: