Abstract
The wetlands, one of the three sustainable ecosystems on this planet, are being severely threatened. The aquatic plant ecosystem is one of the major subsystems of the wetland ecosystem. Aquatic plants are the ‘providers’ that are responsible for providing living environments and nutrients to other organisms and microorganisms. However, aquatic plants are currently facing severe challenges.
!O2 is a product that can continuously inject oxygen into the wetlands. The goal of !O2 is that by maintaining the dynamic balance of oxygen in the water for dynamic balance of the aquatic plant ecosystem could be maintained. It usually works in one or more groups floating on the water. When people drive on the pedal boat in the wetlands, they can remotely connect to the product and access the real world of aquatic plants through the product's underwater camera.
Aquatic plants ecosystem
How do plants work in their system?
The aquatic plant ecosystem consists of emergent plants, floating plants, and submerged plants. Emergent plants grow in shallow water with leaves or stems above the water's surface. Floating plants are growing unattached or rooted with floating leaves. The submerged plants are growing entirely below the water's surface.
Emersed plants are filters in its ecosystem, they can settle solid polluted things. Floating plants can provide light and oxygen to underwater`s organisms, and submerged plants can provide food and living places for them.
Plants need oxygen and light to survive in water, therefore floating and submerged plants have a competitive relationship between those two elements. If there are too many floating plants in the water, submerged plants will die without light. Likewise, if there are too many submerged plants, it will cause a large number of deaths of floating plants. Both phenomena can cause an imbalance in the aquatic plant ecosystem.
Insight
I developed the mood story as the insights:
a. What if the underwater world is actually a reflection of the real world, and the water surface is the gateway between the two realms?
b. In that particular moment, I want to get a close-up and connect with the other realm;
c. a little creature from beyond appeared, it noticed me, but it is a little shy;
d. It swims from the deepwater to the surface. When it was close to the surface, it took a floating plant as a disguise.
Product Developing
Site: The Yanghu Wetland Park
Yanghu Wetland Park is the testing ground of !O2.
The reason is that Yanghu Wetland Park is the largest wetland park in central China. It can accommodate 4 million tourists every year. In the wetland park, people drive pedal boats on the wetland. Many tourists are less enthusiastic about this. While they are pedaling, they have their attention on their mobile phones instead of interacting with nature. My aim is to redirect people’s attention back to the environment, and experience nature through the product.
Storyboard
a. When people rent a pedal boat at the pedal boat rental office, the staff is informed about the role of '!O2' product on the lake, and they download the '!O2' APP;
b. People on the pedal boat open the map in the ‘!O2’ APP to look for the product;
c. When people found a ‘!O2' product, they can enable Bluetooth to connect to the product;
d. People can see that ‘!O2' is injecting oxygen into the water. At this time, people can see the underwater plants through the camera on the product, and explore the invisible world;
e. '!O2' is powered by its solar cell. As the number of visitors increases, it will cause the battery to be insufficiently supplied due to frequent use of the '!O2' product. When the product is low on electricity, people need to use the wireless charging ring on the boat to recharge the product;
f. People can use the rope on the wireless charging ring to move the non-electric product and continue to find the next product.
