BinCam is a collaborative research project between theDigital Interaction group at Newcastle University, LiSC at Lincoln University (Prof. Shaun Lawson) and the University of Duisburg-Essen (Prof. Nicole Krämer).

BinCam is a personal informatics system - developed by Jack Weeden and Ashur Rafiev - to monitor individuals’ food waste and recycling behavior. BinCam is a two-part personal informatics system designed to increase individuals’ awareness of their food waste and recycling behaviour. It uses a standard kitchen bin augmented with a mobile phone to automatically capture and log an individual’s waste management activity. Photos are tagged using a crowd sourcing service and uploaded to the BinCam application on a social network site, which encourages playful engagement and reflection upon a user’s personal bin data. People can review and share communications about the bin-related behaviour of themselves and others.

Applying Facebook as a platform for reflection offers the potential to engage individuals to regularly use the application. In addition, we regard the social network of Facebook, with its communication dynamics and social influences, as a powerful source in changing personal attitudes and behavior.

For more information about the project, visit its website: BinCam Website

Comber, R., Thieme, A., Ganglbauer, E., Rafiev, A., Taylor, N., Fitzpatrick & Olivier, P. (2012). Persuading or probing: Technology designs to promote reflection on food waste in everyday life. DIS 2012 Demonstration , June 11-15, Newcastle, UK.

Thieme, A., Comber, R., Taylor, N., Rafiev, A., & Olivier, P. (2012). BinCam - A Social Persuasive System to Improve Waste Behaviors. CHI 2012 Interactivity, May 8, Austin, Texas.

Thieme, A., Comber, R., Miebach, J., Weeden, J., Krämer, N., Lawson, J., & Olivier, P. (2012). "We've Bin watching you" - Designing for reflection and social persuasion to promote sustainable lifestyles. In Proc. CHI2012 (to appear).

Weeden, J., Thieme, A., & Miebach, J. (2011). BinCam - Waste Logging for Behavioural Change. BSC HCI 2011 Interactive Experience, July 4-8, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. PDF

Thieme, A., Weeden, J., Krämer, N., Lawson, S., & Olivier, P. (2011). BinCam: Waste Logging for Behavioral Change. CHI Workshop Personal Informatics and HCI: Design, Theory, and Social Implications, May 7-12, Vancouver, BC, Canada. PDF