Trash Simulator
Visualize your environmental impact with AI, VR, and trash
2020
Note: The inspiration for this project came from a failed attempt at zero-waste living. Our apartment building didn't have recycling facilities, so we convinced ourselves we'd take recyclables to a nearby center weekly. This did not happen. The piles grew. Roommates complained. Visitors remarked things like 'dude what the heck take your recyclables out.' But somewhere in the sweaty hour before my grandma arrived, sorting six different types of bottles and scrubbing Styrofoam containers, we had an epiphany: when you have to directly face how much trash you produce, you want to produce less of it. We wanted to bring that experience to the world through VR.
Trash Simulator leads users through an experience where they witness the full impact of a year’s worth of their plastic and disposables consumption, dumped at their feet in a heap. “Poubelle” (named after the French word for trash) is a trashbot AI powered by IBM Watson who communicates with users through natural language processing.
In story mode, players interact with Poubelle in a guided experience that uses humor to explore the realities of excessive disposables waste. At the end, users see the impact of a full year’s consumption at the rates they indicated. In free play mode, users can visualize various amounts of trash generation on weekly, monthly, and yearly scales—sometimes the results are surprising.
Winner: Best Hardware Hack at Knight Hacks 2020 (MLH & Digi-Key).
Built with Patrick Molen, Ines Said, and Jordan Smith.
key features
- AI-powered trashbot "Poubelle" using IBM Watson for natural language interaction
- Story mode walking users through their yearly disposables consumption
- Free play mode for experimenting with different consumption levels
- Custom 3D models and environments built from scratch in Maya
- Speech-to-text and text-to-speech for conversational AI
technical details
Built in Unity for Oculus Quest. Integrated IBM Watson (Assistant, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech), Google Firebase Authentication. 3D assets modeled in Maya and textured in Substance Painter.