TetraBIN (tetra bin.com) explores how today's technologies can be used to motivate positive change in urban environments. It uses gamified approaches – making use of game mechanics and game thinking – turn an activity traditionally considered trivial, such as depositing rubbish into a bin, into a joyful event. These approaches are designed to enhance the experience of interacting with urban furniture, with the goal of encouraging more active attitudes from people formerly partaking passively in a relatively insignificant activity. Steven Bai gave the presentation at Sydney Interactive Arts Meet-up event. His friend Sam Johnson also joined later during the last chapter of the presentation.

1. Interactive Arts Meetup
Sydney, Australia
Prepared by Steven Bai
28.01.16

2. STEVEN BAI SAM JOHNSON
TetraBIN
Augmented Reality trash bins - it’s a rubbish idea.

3. GAME DESIGN
BACKGROUND
TETRABIN
URBAN INVENTIONS
Agenda
CUSTOMISED TECHNOLOGY

4. GAME DESIGN
BACKGROUND
TETRABIN
URBAN INVENTIONS
CUSTOMISED TECHNOLOGY

5. PLAY

6. PLAY
= activities that are intrinsically motivated, situated
outside of everyday life and with no direct benefit or
goal
Huizinga, J. 1955. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture.
Boston, USA: Beacon Press.

7. BEIJING DESIGN WEEK, STEVEN BAI, 2015

8. SAM JOHNSON, 2012

9. Long-time collaboration, 2012

10. GAME DESIGN
BACKGROUND
TETRABIN
URBAN INVENTIONS
CUSTOMISED TECHNOLOGY

11. GAME DESIGN
Pong Super Mario Bros. Tetris
Images from Wikipedia

12. http://hacks.mit.edu/Tetris on the MIT’s Green Building

13. http://streetpong.info/
StreetPong

14. GAME THINKING
= not necessarily building an actual game but to
encourage the sustaining interest from people
Werbach, K., & Hunter, D. 2015. For the win: How game thinking can revolutionise
your business. game Wharton Digital Press.

15. GAMIFIATION
= Intrinsically rewarding (e.g. satisfaction about contributing
to a charity)
extrinsically rewarding (e.g. winning a poker game)
Zichermann, G., & Cunningham, C. 2011. Gamification by design:
Implementing mechanics in web and mobile apps. Sebastopol, Calif;
O’Reilly Media.

16. FAMILIARIT Y
= Familiarity can be an important bridge between intention
and behaviour change
Fogg, B.J., 2003, Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We
Think and Do. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco.

17. TETRABIN
BACKGROUND
GAME DESIGN
URBAN INVENTIONS
CUSTOMISED TECHNOLOGY

18. When I came up with the idea of TetraBIN while walking on Sydney’s George Street

19. What if the bins are somehow interactive?

20. Life with
normal bin

22. Life with
TetraBIN

23. low-fidelity prototype designed by Steven and his friends in 2013

24. Low-fi video clip of the initial TetraBIN prototype in 2013 by Steven Bai

26. Video: https://vimeo.com/104292842

27. November, 2013 May, 2014

28. Implementation

29. Implementation

32. FRONT BACK

34. “You could do [this] with more bins. If you do
this in very crowded places, the symbolic and
awareness it raises [is] probably better than the
actual purpose it serves, I would sit down for 20
minutes to play it.”
Study participant

35. “DAD! That’s my block!!!”
Participant, a random member of the general public

37. URBAN INVENTIONS
BACKGROUND
TETRABIN
GAME DESIGN
CUSTOMISED TECHNOLOGY

38. 6.7 billion
More than half of the world’s approximately
people live in the cities as of 2014.
United Nations, 2014

39. Population growth and rapidly increasing urbanisation
puts pressure on existing infrastructures and has
resulted in more frequent use of public services and
products.

40. Economic Analysis White Paper, Cisco, 2013

41. Connecting the Unconnected:
Internet of Everything is poised to generate $19 trillion
in the next 10 years (2013-2022) for the private and
public sectors combined.
Economic Analysis White Paper, Cisco, 2013

42. Design a playful urban invention?

43. Urban space
Game Thinking and
Game Mechanics to
amplify Intrinsic
motivation
Existing environmental
behaviour
TetraBIN
Play
Motivation
Trigger
Ability (easy or hard)

44. CUSTOMISED TECHNOLOGY
BACKGROUND
TETRABIN
URBAN INVENTIONS
GAME DESIGN

46. STEVEN BAI
steven@pinetreelabs.com
+61 401 788 092
@BAI_BYE
SAM JOHNSON
sam@pinetreelabs.com
www.tetrabin.com
Interested in your kids’ favourite trash bin? Talk to us!
Thank you

47. TetraBIN by Steven Bai, Sam Johnson, Martin Tomitsch
Project video clips by Sam Johnson, Steven Bai
TetraBIN Video by Steven Bai
Pictures by Steven Bai, Martin Tomitsch
tetrabin.com
28.01.2016