— May 17th, 2022
It seems like everyone these days is trying to reduce their grocery bill as much as possible, but Niklas Roy and Kati Hyyppä’s interactive installation, Bonprix, turns the tables by making the goal to spend the most money on whatever items can be scanned within 90 seconds.
Bonprix is meant to resemble a self-checkout machine that can be found at nearly any supermarket. The base was constructed from reclaimed wooden pallets and topped with a silver checker plate foil for that authentic experience. At the center is where all of the electronics are located, which includes a cheap handheld barcode scanner and an old laptop to show the game.
Players begin by pressing the large start button that gets read by an Arduino Leonardo, which in turn sends the string “StartGame” to the computer over USB. From here, the aim is to scan the item displayed onscreen while avoiding any discounts that might pop up and reduce the overall score. Every successful scan is accompanied by a beep from a Bluetooth speaker and a flash of green from the string of Nano-controlled WS2812B LEDs.
After the time has expired, the game prints out the receipt listing every item scanned along with any discounts and the grand total at the bottom. To see more about Roy’s project, be sure to watch the demo below or read about the process of creating Bonprix here on his blog.
Website: LINK
