Tomate
How could we maintain a balance between work and physical health?
Inspired by personal health challenges, I realized the importance of staying active during work breaks. This led to the creation of Tomate, a companion designed to encourage activity between focus sessions.
Pomodoro Technique
Robot Companion
Hardware&Software
Work Life Balance
Year
Time
Team
Role
2024
3 Months
2 People
Coding and Industrial Design
CONCEPT
A Friendly Timer Companion
Tomate is a friendly robotic timer that helps students and workers maintain a healthy, productive balance. Using a motivating cycle, it encourages physical activity during breaks from long periods of focus.
It's based on the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method using 25-minute focused work intervals followed by short breaks to improve productivity and prevent burnout.
USERFLOW
Modulate your Working Companion
Users can set their work-and-rest cycles through the mobile app and send them to Tomate. Once the timer starts, Tomate “sleeps” while you work and “wakes up” during breaks to invite you to play with it.
#1
Select a mode
Connect Tomate to your phone to wake it up, then select a mode and press the button to start the timer.
#2
Time to work
Then focus on your work while a countdown timer will show up at Tomate’s screen.
#3
Time to move yourself
When it's time for a break, Tomate requires you to take it for a walk, encouraging physical activity. If you ignored, it will get angry.
#4
Complete a whole cycle
By completing the focus/break cycles, you keep Tomate happy and finish your work productively.
HARDWARE
Inside the Prototype
Inside Tomate is its core: an Arduino board and its electronic components. The most crucial of these is the gyroscope & accelerometer sensor, which is used to detect whether the user is physically active with the device during a break, or has returned it to a stationary position to resume studying.
The display and speaker convey Tomate's different states to the user through personified emotional expressions. All of these components are connected through the Arduino to ProtoPie, ensuring data transmission between the Tomate device and the mobile app.
