Inspiration
Climate change is becoming more serious for people all over the world. We developed "Climate Clock 2.0 Mirror" representing an enhanced version of the original "Climate Clock," link now serving as a smart mirror: to think about global warming as my own matter, to enlighten others on this matter by installing it at schools and facilitating discussions among educators and students, and to prompt our actions that we can do in our daily life such as energy use saving.
What it does
Beyond showcasing the latest data from the "Climate Clock," it dynamically retrieves, calculates, and presents energy-related carbon emissions information specific to the United States and the UK from reliable sources. This innovative tool facilitates discussions among educators and students, shedding light on the pressing urgency of climate change and the fluctuation of carbon emissions within our respective regions. Specifically, it displays essential metrics such as the time remaining to constrain global warming to 1.5°C, the proportion of the world's energy derived from renewables, and the annual carbon emissions from energy consumption in both the US and the state of Massachusetts, and similar the UK information are displayed, including the percentage increase from the previous year. Equipped with a motion sensor, the mirror conserves energy by activating its display only when individuals are in its vicinity, thereby minimizing unnecessary power consumption.
How we built it
To make the smart mirror, we used a gallery picture frame, a magic mirror and a LED panel. A magic mirror was inserted to the front of the frame and the backboard was cut out to the same size as the LED panel, and the LED panel connected to Raspberry Pi was inserted into the cut-out space and fixed. The code was written in Python.
Challenges we ran into
It was difficult to select the most meaningful data for us and to find reliable data sources. We searched sources and available data and decided to focus on energy-related carbon emissions data because it is said that carbon emissions from energy use are a major contributor to global warming.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We have successfully developed a device that displays key indicators affecting climate change on a mirror. This is highly useful for raising awareness and educating people about this issue in our daily lives.
What we learned
Accessing data on carbon emissions at the town or city level is challenging. We tried to obtain this data from our own town but found no such open-source information available.
What's next for Climate Clock 2.0 Mirror
We would like to add a function that automatically calculates and displays our school’s carbon emissions from monthly school gas and electricity usage given specific carbon emissions coefficients based on electricity generation sources so that we can think more as our own matter and encourage our discussion and actions further at our school.
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