The Brief

In India, ‘littering’ has been branded as a nuisance that can’t help but be tolerated. There are few strict laws to prohibit littering; fewer that are actionable. Clearly, non-accessibility to a waste bin isn’t an excuse. Neither is negative motivation working out. So what is the ultimate solution? NH7 Weekender, one of India’s largest music festivals, asked us the same question. While their high-spirited fest goers were used to drinking away all night, their hangovers were manifested through the countless littered cups from the bars, spread across acres of festival grounds. We created Mr. Wasted Bin- the first drunk talking dustbin. A dustbin, which, just like every fest goer, got drunk with every cup that was thrown inside him. And what’s more? He talked just as drunk too. Execution team included Creative Director and Project Manager, Copywriters, Integrated Systems Architects, Tech Lead + Controller, Designers and Fabricators, Sound Engineers, Animators and Videographers + Editors. The total budget including design, fabrication and installation was Rs. 1,10,000 (appx. $1,800).

Activity Flow: Mr. Wasted Bin was placed close to one of the festival’s biggest bars. He ‘called out’ to users close to him, inviting them to ‘feed their empty cups’ and get him drunk. Every time a cup was thrown in, the user received a hilarious ‘drunk’ response. With more cups the bin ‘drank’, the more inebriated he spoke... just like any other fest-goer. From planning to deployment, the project lasted four weeks, which gave us little scope to do embedded devices. Instead, our hack included the alcohol sensors and IR devices to communicate with Raspberry Pi, which transmitted the data (wifi) to a CPU via web service. The CPU understood depth and user direction/motion (Kinect). Based on multiple states and time codes, it played out different gestures of audio and video. Everything was tied together in an AS3 flash plugin that got broadcasted on a display. Since the module was a web-service driven, it was easy to interject custom gestures or manually override the bin using a local http access to a custom control interface from our mobile on the same wireless network. Skeletal Level Components: Built as a web-app running on Raspberry Pi with: 1) An XBOX Kinect to detect movement. On detection, the bin spoke, encouraging fest-goers to throw their cups inside him. 2) A CRT screen on top to enable eye gestures and text with every dialogue. 3) Motion sensors next to the lid to detect when it is opened. 4) IR Sensors to detect the drop of a cup. 5) Alcohol sensors to gauge alcohol levels inside, using fumes from the cups. 6) Two high powered speakers to blast each dialogue. 7) WAN setup to remote control the bin; using any mobile device. 8) Internal system loaded with logic, face animations and voice-dialogue database.

Mr. Wasted Bin was created for ‘Only Much Louder’- the company behind NH7 Weekender, and was installed at the event to interact directly with fest visitors. The tricky part of the tech integration was to provide a humanistic, intuitive performance while retaining the look and feel of a ‘machine/robot’. So the user CTA (as most of them were inebriated!) was kept as simple as possible. No buttons, no touch screens. Just throw in your cup and get a response. By the end of it, what in reality was a ‘social responsibility’ activation was masquerading as a fun and interactive experience. And inebriated fest-goers turned into responsible citizens without even realizing it!If invested in an embedded approach, the device will be easier to mass produce and scale to activations over a wider area, all connected and behaving alike, for events across hospitality and entertainment.