Generation Alpha’s familiarity with electronics may provide them a unique adavantage in efforts to protect the outdoors.
Generation Alpha’s familiarity with electronics also prevents many of them from playing outdoors.
When children cannot or refuse to play outside, they miss a number of health benefits, and apathy toward the enviornment increases. I wanted to see if a solution could exist in the form of a tangible object.
Misinformation, demonization, and/or mystifisation of unappealing organism online may make children fearful of the outdoors and nature.
There are few educational toys that would make a child afraid of nature more comfortable outdoors.
An ideal solution would be a portable, hand held device that encourages the user to play outside with rewards through a familiar feeling, digital interface.
I concluded the design should be two-part, consisting of the device with a self-contained interface, and an app which could be used for further reading.
Inside, the telescopic parts of the GREENtime Monocular are mechanicle, and will work even if the device’s battery is depleted.
Light from the lens is reflected to an image sensor. The same mirror used also relfects the display into the eyepiece.
The GREENtime Monocular is smart, phygital device aimed at children ages 7-12.
The Monocular is a, hand held-telescope that can be used for wildlife observation, with an AR interface that can be operated by the physical contols on the outside of the device.
The device encourages outdoor play by rewarding points for time spent outside, and reduces fear of the unknown by identifying observations.
This device can be taken anywhere so the child can use doing whatever outdoor activity they enjoy. Points rewarded for time spent outside by evolving a virtual companion the user chooses. This encourages both short and long term outdoor engagement.
The monocular is able to identify wildlife, and will reward observations with cosmetics. the device connects to a mobile app for the user's parent which can be used further research.
I created an app with Google Firebase that had all the same features as the monocular, and tasked children in my targeted age-group to identify both real and simulated wildlife. Students both handled full scale and undersized models of the design.
“I wanted to download the app on my ipad…“It would be cool if the app were able to reward longer seoutdoor playtime”
— Grade-school participant“I like how small it is and how it’s only one lens. I have trouble focusing both eyepieces when I use binoculars and that’s not a problem with this”
— Middle-school participant“[My class] loved the initial activity so much that I had to expand it into a full science lesson and repeated it with the whole class the next day as everyone wanted a turn.”
— Grade school teacher
The parent can see their child’s activity log and observations from a seperate app. Links are provided for further research, so parents and children can learn how to attract, and protect local wildlife. In this way, the parent is also encouraged to participate in more outdoor activities.
