development
In the Summer of 2014, I was a barista at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Traverse City, Michigan. Ever since my employment there, I have been obsessed with coffee, and the different ways to make it. A previous group project that I worked on for my CSC235: Physical Computing course in Spring 2016 was called the “French Pressor,” a linear actuator designed to filter a French press after a selected amount of time. I wasn’t satisfied with the project, and have since been developing a much more comprehensive device.
the prototype
My senior capstone project for my Creative Technologies bachelor’s degree focused on my prototype with the tongue in cheek name “HoloBrew.” HoloBrew was developed using Human-centered design as an attempt to replace the Keurig (and the vast amounts of waste that come with it) with a drip coffee machine that was connected to the internet of things. The idea behind this was that a properly optimized drip machine could require less morning time and effort than a Keurig, yet brew better coffee. A functional prototype was developed and presented at the 2017 Berry College Symposium, and again at the spring meeting of the Executive Action Committee after an invitation from Dean Joyce T. Heames, Dean of the Campbell School of Business. Additionally, schematics and a custom PCB were designed in Eagle CAD, with fully functional PCBs manufactured by Oshpark. Rubix (formerly Hey Joe Coffee) funded the development of HoloBrew, and was very receptive to the presented functional prototype. I have since been invited to present HoloBrew in Shenzhen to a group of engineers to develop a Kickstarter prototype. Because of the business relationship I have with Rubix, I am unable to detail specifics of the project, however, I have attached a video below showing the smartphone connectivity that I have added to the device: