Group Project

Food

Our group chose to do our project based on the product called the hive connect. We viewed a video that allowed us to see exactly what the hive can do and we decided to take the product a step further.

When we first discussed the hive we decided that it would be used in a single home, but as we began researching it further, we turned it into a small sustainable city.

I was given the opportunity to focus on food and how it can help the city become more sustainable, and how it can connect people through networking. As we were discussing and brainstorming we ended up building off the idea that the hive connects with other buildings and smart devices within a given area.

How many times have you thrown away food because it goes bad? Left overs often go to waste and most times we buy more ingredients than we need. This is a huge problem. Nutritionists predict that by 2050 we need to produce double what we do now to survive. The hive connect provides you with the ability to swap food and left overs through social media. You and your neighbors can swap small ingredients by posting what you need and what you are willing to trade. This will allow the community to get the most out of their groceries and they will be using all their purchases.

There is an app in the works very similar to this idea called Leftover Food Swap. It lets you take pictures of your food and people can set up an arrangement to come pick them up or swap another kind of food. No money is exchanged.

By using the hive connect you wont have to enter in all of the food that you buy, it will connect all of the smart devices in your house (including your fridge) to other homes and buildings containing hive connect. Your fridge will have sensors that can determine what foods are where and how much they weigh. You will never run out of anything and will never have to go through the trouble of typing in every single thing you buy into an app.

Of course this comes with its drawbacks. To make this kind of system work, their has to be an element of trust. You have to be okay with the fact that your neighbors touched the food they are swapping and you have to be selfless in willing to give food.

If the community would buy into the hive and form a trust in the process of food sharing, we would be able to save so much food and not to mention money. This would also help in the efforts to figure out how we are going to feed 9 billion people by the year 2050.


http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/leftover-swap-food-sharing-app-in-the-works