One Maker duo is combining the old-school game of Tetris and the Internet of Things to create one ‘smart’ trash can. 

We’ve seen talking water fountains. We’ve seen smart benches. We’ve even seen LED sidewalks. Now, add interactive trash cans to the growing list of ambient objects you’d likely come across in any public park. The brainchild Sam Johnson & Steven Bai, TetraBIN uses custom-built electronics and LED panels to reimagine an everyday garbage can and to help promote sustainable behaviors and playful experiences throughout a city. A pair of prototype installations initially debuted back at Vivid Sydney 2014, which happens to be the largest lighting festival in Australia.

“It’s the childhood dream of both of us to create products and services to encourage sustained changes in people’s lives. Motivated by the idea of play as a way of inspiring people (especially the younger generation) to be aware of environmental sustainability issues such as littering problems, we have augmented a trash bin with the latest computing technology,” the duo writes.

Reminiscent of ‘80s video games with its sounds and 8-bit images, the aptly-named TetraBIN allows users to collaboratively control Tetris-like blocks on its screen on its outer surface. The pattern of these blocks vary based on the size and shape of the litter, as well as the timing of disposal. 

Each Arduino-compatible TetraBIN is powered by an ATmega32U4 and equipped with WS2812 RGB LEDs, IR beam sensors and chiptune sounds made by an 8-bit processor that are emitted from a built-in speaker. What’s more, the interactive trash can is remotely accessible from the Internet, further bridging the gap between the digital and physical world.

The installation itself utilizes the latest in LED media façade technology. Johnson and Bai implemented custom-produced displays — each with 900 LEDs that were manually mounted onto laser-cut Perspex and covered with a translucent layer of polycarbonate — onto the circular surface of the trash container. Three pairs of custom-developed infrared sensors were used on each bin to recognize the items being thrown away. This information is then relayed to the Arduino, causing similarly-sized digital block to appear on its external panel and fall to the bottom. The vibrantly-colored brick stays there until the next person deposits their rubbish and one row of the panel is filled. Then, just like in the game Tetris, the row disappears.

“TetraBIN explores how digital 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.” 

The project recently launched on Kickstarter, however was unsuccessful in achieving its goal. Nevertheless, this concept is certainly an innovative way to make litter more entertaining, and more importunity, will hopefully encourage more folks to partake in proper waste disposal. Intrigued? Head over to its official page here, and be sure to watch it in action below!