Customer Feature: Ruth Buckley

Introducing TinyCircuits customer Ruth Buckley! Ruth is currently a third-year product design student at the Edinburgh College of Art. She considers herself a maker who is motivated by pushing herself to create new things and try different techniques. Ruth found TinyCircuits because she was seeking Arduino compatible boards small enough to fit her needs. 

The Travel Bit Mug was produced as part of her university studies. The aim was to create a piece of speculative design that makes people think about the overuse of technology in our society. This is portrayed by adding technology to an activity where it is irrelevant and does not add anything to the activity. The Travel Bit Mug is made from a TinyDuino Basic Kit. Ruth chose the lithium option because she was attaching a light strip to it so it had to be powerful enough to power this without being plugged in. 

The mug works by tilting the cup to take a sip, and for each sip, a new light is turned on. The number of lights turned on corresponds to the number of sips taken. The mug automatically turns off after not being used for a long period of time and is rechargeable. The Bit Travel Mug is also coated in black thermochromic color-changing ink. This special ink turns from black to clear at 31°C to reveal the handwritten code on the outside of the cup that programs the electronics. Ruth says she is inspired to create by her drive to try new techniques and by the process of exploration. She feels that exploration can lead to unexpected results that you wouldn't otherwise come across.

Thanks for Making with us Ruth, we <3 this project! 

We love to show what customers like YOU do with our tech every day! Interested in having your tech featured in a blog post like this? Tag us in your projects on Facebook and Twitter, or post in our Forum under "User Projects." We'll be on the lookout for our next candidate!