An ambitious passionate designer desiring to dissolve complexities. Looking forward for a place where I can contribute my skills and explore new challenging works.
OCHA 2.0
THE COMPLETE TEA EXPERT
Self Initiated Project
RESEARCH
My journey through the tea gardens
Tea has been around for millennia. Everybody loves tea. "Tea time" or "Afternoon tea" is an indispensable part of our society. It has been the second most consumed beverage on the planet after water and has been a huge part of culture in countries forming major part of ceremonies, trade route and even starting revolutions.
Everyone should have that perfect cup of tea every single day. For those who don’t have time to brew a cup or even own a thermometer to make sure the water is just hot enough, a need for smart brewer comes up.
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Research methods used:
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Contextual Enquiry
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Interviews
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Shadowing
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Task flow analysis
ABOUT
A smart way for your cuppa..!!
Do you love a cup of your personalised tea for a morning energy boost to start the day? Or maybe you prefer to wind down with a herbal, chamomile tea before bedtime. Whether you like herbal, black, green, red, or white teas, ‘Ocha’ can make that perfect cuppa ready when you want. A personalised tea maker that can cater to your nose and palate.
ANALYSIS
What I understood
The widespread popularity and culture of tea in India paves the need to cater the elderly and the big families to present day nuclear families and novice users. There are a host of things to take into consideration when preparing your tea. Ranging from brewing to steeping to the right temperature with an ideal water to leaf ratio can make every cuppa suit as per your tastebuds. The perfect pot is personal to the drinker.
PROBLEM BRIEF
My focus in this project
To understand and design a smart tea maker kettle which can prepare varied kinds of tea for varying taste buds of Indian household by innovation and IOT technology.
IDEAS
Deep diving
A whisk of classic and contemporary style that encapsulates the tea cup and has that perfect place in everyone's kitchen.
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INTRODUCING
Ocha - The complete Tea Expert
The perfect way to make that perfect customised cup of Indian Chai, milk or no milk, sugar or no sugar, less steep or more steep, you say it all ,Ocha 2.0 can make it all. It can be used equally by the young and old. If you like your tea at the ring of your morning alarm, then Ocha 2.0 can also be scheduled and is ready at your bedside table with that refreshing cup of morning tea. Formulated for the next-generation use, IOT based Ocha 2.0 comes with a companion app that lets you use it even when you are outside home.
KEY ELEMENTS
Parts and Pieces
Glass bowl with integrated handle and spout
Telescopic aluminium mesh
tea leaf/tea bag holder
Hover on the hotspot to view the Part details
Refill area for water and other ingredients
Rotating Platform with an Eccentric Electromagnetic Groove and a Temperature Sensor
User Interface is integrated with a control dial, which can be rotated to navigate through the menu. Also, it has 3 buttons, one on the display and two on either sides.
KEY ELEMENTS
The Stirrer
Ocha has a unique way of stirring the ingredients. It has a rotating platform that holds the glass bowl in place with the help of electromagnetic groove, which is eccentric to its rotating axis. The circular metal ring at the bottom of the glass bowl falls in line with the electromagnetic groove on the base, ensuring that the bowl is firmly held. This position thereby helps the bowl to move along an eccentric path, which in turn ensures thorough stir of the ingredients within it.
The glass bowl is sleek and ergonomically designed, such that the spout does not get in contact with the inner wall during its eccentric rotation. The inner surface of the bowl which is directly opposite to the spout is thickened in such a way that it itself forms the handle.
Hover on the hotspot to view the working
KEY ELEMENTS
User Interaction
Ocha comes with a central display console comprising of a display button placed right at the centre of the console that helps in selecting the various options on the menu. It also has a control dial along with two push buttons embedded on either side.
DISPLAY BUTTON: The display button holds an OLED display and is also used as a push button for selecting the menu options.
CONTROL DIAL: The control dial is a 360 degree limitless rotating dial that helps in navigating.
DIAL BUTTONS: The push buttons embedded on the control dial helps in manoeuvring back and forth around the menu screens. A long press on the back button would direct to the main menu screen.
Personalised tea options can be saved which helps the user to choose their tea preferences much more easily. Also, the predefined home setting can be edited allowing user to define the ingredient strength accordingly.
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Brewing a Tea
Home screen and ingredient levels
Hover on the UI to view the interaction
Ocha when idle exhibits a digital clock along with four dials indicating the levels of water, sugar, tea powder and milk powder. With just a rotation of the control dial, the details of each ingredient is specifically displayed on the screen.​
Home Screen > Choose the option Make Tea > Type of tea (Milk Tea) > Choose the strength of tea (Strong) > Choose Sugar preference (3 Cubes) > Choose temperature (Hot) > Choose the number of cups (3 cups) > Finally displaying counter while making tea.
Scheduling Tea
Profiles
Hover on the UI to view the interaction
Ocha 2.0 allows you to save up to 5 customised profiles.
Home Screen> Profiles> Choose Profile (Dilna) > The preset tea preference is displayed > Select the number of cups needed
With Schedule tea option, set the time when tea is required. Ocha calculates the time required for your tea and plans it accordingly.
USAGE
How it works
Once all the inputs are entered, the countdown timer automatically starts. The images below display the working with the timer countdown along 3 phases.
In case the ingredients are not sufficient to make the tea, Ocha will notify the user to add the necessary ingredient to proceed.
The magnetic clamps gets activated and it holds the glass bowl eccentrically. Water is boiled using electrode heater within. The process can be terminated at any time by pressing the display button.
Tea bowl starts to spin about its eccentric axis. Preset amount of milk powder gets added to little amount of hot water. Since the pot is being rotated about its eccentric axis, it makes sure that the milk is mixed well with water.
More water will be added as per need keeping the ratio proportionate with milk powder.
The tea holder progresses down into the bowl. It stays down for a preset time according to the choice of decoction while the bowl keeps rotating. Once the tea is ready , it automatically progresses upwards. The temperature of the tea is continuously sensed by the temperature sensor placed at the bottom of the bowl, and it keeps stirring the tea till it reaches the required temperature. Finally the rotor stops, the magnetic lock gets released and the bowl can be taken out to serve tea.
Hover on the hotspot to know the details
VARIANTS
Colours
Ocha 2.0 comes in two colour variants, one is the ever classic pearl white, while the second is a contrasting charcoal black variant.
PEARL WHITE
CHARCOAL BLACK
ACCOMPANIMENT
Companion mobile aplication
A companion mobile application lets user operate OCHA remotely using the IOT (Internet of Things) technology.
The application can be used to do almost everything ranging from making tea, scheduling tea, boiling water to setting and editing profile or home settings. It also gives statistical data on tea consumption and health.
CHARCOAL BLACK
Hover on the application to view the interaction
HIGHLIGHTS
Design Features
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Designed for making 4 to 5 cups of Milk tea, black tea or any other type of tea.
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Intuitive controls Ergonomically designed for human height i.e. can operate in standing position when it is kept on the table.
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All inputs are given initially, so there is no need for standing at the place for whole processing time.
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Has a maximum of 5 Preset profiles to choose from, making it comfortable for a nuclear family.
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Incorporation of IoT(Internet of things) within the system helps in scheduling the tea.
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No direct exposure to flame or fire, hence even children can also operate.
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Customisable parameters are incorporated.
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Chance of spilling is reduced.
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User can include other additives as required along with the tea leaves (crushed).
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In a nutshell, Ocha 2.0 is compact and robust.
