This was based on an idea I had while in my Industrial Design course, but I never had the chance to execute. It is a user interface for a UC Berkeley-run water bottle vending machine system that only distributes durable plastic and glass bottles for $4.
When empty, these bottles can be exchanged for a new bottle. The empty bottles are taken to an on-campus facility where they are sterilized and later replaced into the machines where they are redistributed.
One may cash out of the system depending on how many bottles one has consumed (tracked by barcode), i.e. after one bottle -$3 refund, after 2 bottles - $2, after 4 bottles, no more refunds, but as many exchanges as you want... forever.
The two sky blue rectangles are supposed to be revolving doors. The left one accepts your old bottle. The right one dispenses your new one.
1 comment:
I gotta say, that's a pretty cool idea.
As far as my understanding goes, the machine vends the bottles only. That means no water, yes?
So essentially you can get a bottle for $1.00 if you decide to cash out when you use the machine next.
My question is what happens when someone continues to exchange their bottle over and over again? If enough people just do that, will the machine just not be making anymore money and the system will continue to clean the ones that are dirty?
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