If there are three things that every good party should have, it’s people, music and Solo cups (for drinks, obviously). Now what if these were all integrated into one dynamic system? Well, that’s exactly what one team from Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) sought to find out as part of a four-day exploration into physical computing. The aptly named Boogie Cup not only controls the volume of your favorite tunes, it allows party-goers to follow each other on Spotify.
As you probably know, the volume at get-togethers is always either too loud or too quiet, not reflective of the crowd. However, the Boogie Cup is capable of predicting the number of people and adjust the volume accordingly.
To accomplish this, the Boogie Cup holder uses an infrared distance sensor to determine how many cups are in the stack. As guests take cups, the sensor detects a change in distance, and increases the volume at the party. Meanwhile, the Arduino MKR1000 (SAM W25) wirelessly connects the system to the Spotify API. When two guests pass by with similar playlists, their cups light up. When they cheers, a message is sent to a server that enables each user to follow each other on Spotify.
“The Boogie Cup was inspired by the metaphor of a cup and string telephone, and encouraging new behaviors with ordinary objects,” the team explains. “Future explorations would include a playlist voting function, and motion-activated playlists.”
Intrigued? Head over to the project’s page here or see it in action below!