INDIVIDUAL NOTIFICATION DEVICE
In 2019, the Córrego do Feijão dam collapsed, under the responsibility of the company Vale and located in the city of Brumadinho, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, which caused a disaster that deeply impacted not only the region, but the entire country. With the intention of avoiding new disasters of the same nature, the DIN or Individual Notification Device project was developed. The equipment was created as part of an alarm system dedicated to monitoring and alerting residents of risk areas of dam failures. This is a pilot initiative proposed and financed by Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CEMIG) in partnership with the state's Civil Defense. In order to achieve this goal, efforts are being made by FITec Inovações Tecnológicas, Institute of Science and Technology (ICT), dedicating itself to the development and implementation of monitoring sensors for hydroelectric dams, the radiofrequency signal transmission network and the electronics onboard the DIN; Pixel TI, an industry focused on manufacturing and assembling the equipment in question; also by the Ânima Institute, a research and development institution dedicated to contacting the communities involved in the DIN fairing project and hiring design team.
Social Impact
The initiative directly served the 23,500 inhabitants of Carmo do Cajuru and the 2,700 inhabitants of Piau, of which 1,319 received a DIN unit in their homes. In a country that has 928 mining dams and 219 large hydroelectric dams,
of which at least 100 are at risk of failure, potentially repeating the 2019 disaster in Brumadinho, the initiative offers a greater level of security for the population in their lives everyday life, impacting your well-being and property preservation, as well as being important for preserving the environment.
The community of both cities was involved in all stages of the project, contributing precious information and actively participating in the decision-making processes of the entire project. Information was collected regarding the perception of value, life context, preferences and social impact in collaboration with local city halls and the state's Civil Defense.
Currently, the project is in the expansion phase, aiming to compass all areas of reach in riverbeds in the vicinity of hydroelectric plants with residences throughout the state of Minas Gerais.
results
Article in a scientific journal:
Design e Tecnologia is a biannual scientific journal linked to the Postgraduate Program in Design at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
Title:
Design, Technology and Safety: impacts of the morphology of an Individual Notification Device on the perception of users in areas at risk of dam failure
Authors:
Anderson Horta; Pedro Damas
Abstract:
This study aims to discuss the relations between design proposals and the communication of specific meanings via objects. To this end, a specific initiative called Projeto DIN is described, in which four different models were designed for the fairing of the same equipment, an individual notification device, which has the function of alerting residents of areas at risk of flooding in the event of a rupture. of dams in two cities in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais, Piau and Carmo do Cajurú. The initiative implies the installation of a dam communication and sensing network for which the device in question was created. The research whose results are presented here is based on theories linked to the communicational aspects of Design as an area of knowledge, based on the idea that it is the purpose of Design to communicate, tell stories, impress sensations, using, for that, senses previously socially constructed, to then generate new meanings. These same theories support and appropriate knowledge from areas related to Design, such as Social Communication and Sociology, as discussed in a specific subtitle. Different ways of handling aesthetic and archetypal resources in the communication of meanings in object design were also put to the test, presenting different results for each of the four developed DIN models. During the design process of the four developed proposals, formal elements laden with different meanings were handled, in particular the use of object archetypes, in order to provoke different sensations, all relevant to the communication of the idea of safety in relation to the equipment. Then, device prototypes were produced and exposed to the communities served by the initiative, resulting in expressions that were interpreted and analyzed, generating the results presented in this document. The main points refer to the perception of security communicated through characteristics related to the feeling of familiarity produced through forms that refer to the retro style; as well as the perception of reliable performance through formats assimilated to austerity and imbued with seriousness. These two resources appear, in the survey, as the most efficient in communicating reliability in relation to the equipment and the technological network itself to which it serves as an interface.
Keywords:
Design of a DIN; safety; technology; breakage of dams.
Credits
General Coordinator: Diogo Martins
Head of Design: Anderson Horta
Designers: Pedro Damas; Anderson Horta
Head of Electronic Engeneering: Johnny Mafra
Psychologist: Rafael Prosdocimi
Companies involved:
CEMIG
Defesa Civil de Minas Gerais
Ânima Educação
FiTec Inovações Tecnológicas
Pixel TI
Support:
FAPEMIG
Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais
