Internet of Things: The Smart Package Storage
The Idea
In the US, one of the biggest pain points for receiving packages is the risk of packages being stolen. In addition, during the COVID19 pandemic situation, delivery receiving with zero social contact has also become an issue that people are struggling with.
Package theft affects roughly one in five US households. The average victim lost 2.6 packages to theft in 2017, and the average lost package was worth $140. The number has been rising along with the increased online shopping trend among people.
For customers, the risk of package theft leads to either the inconvenience of people trying to avoid packages being stolen (many people wait at home for days around the estimated package arrival time) or the actual fact of package loss.
For e-commerce businesses, such as Amazon.com, because of their protection policies to customers (e.g. A-to-Z Guarantee Protection from Amazon), they are often responsible for the refund or re-delivery of the stolen/lost packages. The approximate lost value of packages in 2017 is $8.22 billion, a significant cost for businesses responsible for compensation.
To tackle these problems, I came up with the idea of The Smart Package Storage that can assist people with package management could solve the pain point of both customers and e-commerce businesses. A Smart Package Storage is a big package storage cabinet embedded in your house door which is connected to the Internet to assist users to receive packages remotely and safely as well as can store and sanitize the received packages before they're taken out by the user.
Design Concept
The cabinet, on its front side, has an automatic door connected to the cloud with a collapsible package slope and a load cell sensor. When the delivery person delivers a package to the resident, they can pull down the package slope and place the package on the slope. The delivery person, mostly after delivering a package, he/she will take a picture of the package and update the delivery status to the package tracking page. The smart storage system, when sensed with a package placed on the slope, will send a text message to the user with the link to the package tracking page. The user, after receiving the text, can check the status and picture of the package delivery and approve receiving the package by replying to the text. The storage system, after receiving approval signal from the user, will automatically open the package door on the cabinet and the package will slide into the cabinet storage. The package will be sanitized after sliding into the storage. And the user can retrieve his/her package at their time of convenience from the other side of the cabinet which locates in the indoor of their house.
Front (outdoor) Back (indoor)