Masters of Interaction and Experience Design, University of Limerick
Exploring Horoscopes Using Arduino (Physical Computing)
This project is a simple demonstration of how astrology, a very popularly known science used for extracting horoscopes and future telling can be implemented on an interactive device using Arduino. Although debatable whether astrology is a religious practice, related to a religion, or neither, Zoe Glas, a Sr. User Experience Researcher at Google, has pointed out at the UXRConf 2022 that 85% of the world is religious and the count is still growing as we speak. India’s ancient system of knowledge is embedded in the Vedas, rooted in which is “Vedic astrology” which is based on the belief that stars and planets have a powerful influence on our lives. Zoe also pointed out that many years from today, the population with strong motives for faith, belief, and way of life seems to be increasing 230 times more than the secular section of the global population. This also implies that like religion, astrology also has a lot of room to bridge the gap between horoscope fans, people seeking direction to steer through tough times and user-experience research teams who want to build user-friendly products catered to the needs of “religious” users.
Figure 2: A working prototype that shows how a potentiometer, a pushbutton, a red LED, a blue LED and green LED are connected using an Arduino UNO.
Technical Components Used for Project Work
Hardware Used: Arduino Uno, Grove-LCD RGB Backlight, Potentiometer, Pushbutton, Yellow LED, Green LED, Blue LED, Red LED
Software/Libraries Used: Arduino IDE 2.0.0, Grove LCD library
Figure 3: A schematic circuit diagram that shows how different components are connected using an Arduino UNO.
There is another element of possibility that I would like to point out. What if horoscopes derived from ancient traditional practices, involving years of academic research and training, happen to be proven true, then won’t UX and interaction design teams have a winning tool to get to know their users a lot better than what they consider the best today?
Full project video link here.
Code can be found here.
Project Report can be shared on request to ranishadas1999@gmail.com
