Journal of IT in Asia, Vol 09, 2021
IoT Piggy Bank for Money Saving Habit Instillation
1
Eng Yee Wei and 2Wee Bui Lin
1, 2
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota
Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia, Malaysia
email: [email protected], [email protected]
Date received: 18 December 2020
Date accepted: 24 September 2021
Date published: 18 October 2021
Abstract – Children nowadays are overwhelming with luxurious things and have only little or even no money
concepts where most of the kids just reach out to their parents for buying anything they want. This could be
an issue for parents, hence kids should be taught the value of money and knowing that save their own money
is important to purchase anything they desired. This project proposed an innovative way to inculcate saving
behaviours in children using an IoT Piggy Bank. This goal-directed approach allows children to set their
saving goals (values of their desired items) and form a saving habit slowly through their saving routines
toward their saving goals. Every saving made by the children will be tracked in a mobile app and a buzzer
will be triggered as a reinforcer to alert children when they do not save regularly. The user acceptance testing
(UAT) of the proposed prototype has shown the majority of the parents (90%) agreed that the proposed IoT
piggy bank is very suitable for children to instil saving habit. Most of the children have reacted positively
where they were having lots of fun when trying on the IoT piggy bank and expressed that they would continue
to use it for saving in the future.
Keywords: IoT, piggy bank, saving behaviour, goal tracking, money management, goal-directed behaviour,
prototyping.
1 Introduction
According to Cambridge Counselling Corporation (“Teaching Kids the Value of Money,” n.d.), kids nowadays
have only little or even no money concept where most of the kids just reach out to their parents for buying anything
they want. A study by Lewis and Scott (2000) has shown that the level of economic awareness and knowledge
among older children are relatively limited. The never-ending demand from kids could be an issue for parents
and shows a sign of inadequate economic awareness in kids. Therefore, kids should be taught about the value of
money and economic knowledge through their daily economic transactions in their early childhood.
Saving is not easy for many people. According to Kamawar et al. (2019), saving is a skill that requires future
expectation and self-control to do so. There is a direct relationship of self-control influence on saving behaviour
as conveyed in Ghufron and Risnawitaq (2017) and Sirine and Utami (2016). Additionally, parents’ influences
also play important role in instilling saving behaviour in early childhood. Firmansyah (2013) stated that the
parents’ saving behaviours and support in saving promote children to save for their future. Another study by
Chalimah et al. (2019) has also proven that the role of parents, financial literacy, and self-control and future
perceptions has effects on saving behaviour of students. Save money for something their really want could be one
of the determinants of children’s savings behaviours. The goal-directed approach with a proper application of
reinforcements could stimulate the formation of saving habits in children more effectively.
There are some solutions on IoT piggy bank development that have been designed to serve different purposes
from coins detection to saving behaviour tracking. However, there still lacks solutions for children to learn the
value of money and to acquire saving skills in order to save up for the things they wish to own. This project
proposed an innovative way to inculcate saving behaviours in children using an IoT Piggy Bank that allows
children to set their saving goals based on the values of their desired items and form a saving habit slowly through
their saving routines toward the saving goals. For every saving they made, the money will be tracked in a mobile
app and a buzzer is used as a reinforcer to alert children when they do not save regularly. With this goal-directed
approach, saving coins in piggy banks becomes more interesting compared with the traditional piggy banks.
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2 Literature Review
Various works applying IoT technology on piggy bank have been done to serve similar purposes of this project.
The following sections discuss the reviews of three existing IoT Piggy Banks, namely Smart Piggy Bank, Coink
and Pennie.
2.1 Review on Related Works
2.1.1 Smart Piggy Bank: In-home Banking System for Children
Smart Piggy Bank is an IoT Piggy Bank that connects to an online bank account (Lee et al., 2017). The purpose
of this piggy bank is to detect the saving behaviour of children. This IoT Piggy Bank is connected through a
smartphone application via Bluetooth transmission. With this application, it can help parents to track their
children’s saving behavioural pattern. The IoT product is focusing on the saving behaviour of children rather than
the amount of money that has been saved in real-time. Parents can see the children’s saving trend through the
mobile application. The smart piggy bank does not consist of correct coin value detection where their emphasis is
only on motivating children to save money.
2.1.2 Coink – An IoT Piggy Bank
Cojo company has developed a type of IoT Piggy Bank named Coink (León Peque & Casas, 2018). It is an IoT
Piggy Bank that used to detect coin by using a magnetic sensor that built inside the piggy bank. It is a simple
piggy bank that is able to differentiate between 1 € and 2 € coins. Coink uses 3D Magnetic Sensor 2GO to detect
the magnetic field produced by a passing coin inserted through the ramp built inside the piggy bank. Before any
coins are inserted, there is one webpage showing on the computer screen. The data of the total amount of money
saved is transferred to the cloud service. Progress tracking of this piggy bank is displayed in a browser that can
instantly show out the coin picture and its value. Coink is able to keep track of user’s saving in a graph format.
2.1.3 Pennie: An Arduino-Powered IoT Piggy Bank
Pennie is an Arduino powered IoT Piggy Bank which is designed by a first-year university student named Yuko
Kanai. It is an IoT Piggy Bank used to track the progress of a physical half marathon training at the meantime
depositing money in a digital form for saving purposes and also self-rewarding for each achievement (“PENNIE:
An Arduino Powered IoT Piggy Bank,” 2020). The user of Pennie has to wear a bracelet which connected to the
piggy bank Pennie when running for a half-marathon. When there are certain steps the user has acquired, the
training lamp will light up on the piggy bank and a fixed amount of money in digital format will be accumulated
by then. This project is aiming to cultivate a saving behaviour for kids while Pennie piggy bank uses piggy bank
as a guide to motivate user on half-marathon training.
2.1.4 Downside and Improvement on related works
Based on the findings from the review above, Smart Piggy Bank, Coink and Pennie are having saving track
features. However, they do not have a proper way to keep track of the saving done or to see the trend of saving.
Therefore, this project proposed to add on the functions of goal-setting and saving tracking visualization on the
mobile application to overcome the above-mentioned problems. Besides, there is also a reminder function built
on the piggy bank to remind children to do their savings regularly.
2.2 Review on Type of Detector/Sensors
In terms of detection devices reviews, there are different types of coin detectors or sensors used by each of the
IoT Piggy Bank. Smart Piggy Bank uses a needle switch sensor, a type of coin pusher that is normally fixed in
arcade game accessories. It detects coins only when a coin is dropped and pushed over the sensor as it works
mechanically as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: 3-feet micro switch needle-type microswitch for old mechanical coin select acceptor arcade game
accessories
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Secondly, Coink used a magnetic sensor to detect coins and to differentiate the various type of coins by analysing
each coin’s magnetic field and present it in a graph. The example of a magnetic sensor is shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2: Example of a magnetic sensor
3 Methodology
This project adopts the improved Waterfall SDLC methodology (Royce, 1970) to develop the system prototype.
Figure 3 depicts the 5 phases and the process activities involved in each phase of this project development. The
details of the phases will be discussed in the following sections.
Figure 3: The waterfall model for IoT Piggy Bank for Saving Behaviour Instillation project
3.1 Requirement Analysis and Definition
The requirement analysis is the first phase of the Waterfall SDLC. Firstly, the problem statements are identified
and analysed. All the requirements are gathered and documented. Use case diagram is used to describe the
system’s requirements and the scope of the system as depicted in Figure 4. It identifies the interactions between
the system and actors. There are 4 actors which are children, parent, sensor and buzzer. Children can only save
money in the piggy bank after discussion with their parents, parent help children to set saving goal. Parent can
also view children’s saving trends. Then, the sensor detects the inserted coins and the buzzer triggers the alarm
when no saving activity is detected for a certain period.
Figure 4: Use case diagram of IoT Piggy Bank for money saving habit instillation
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3.2 System Design
There are 4 types of designs involved in IoT Piggy Bank prototype development, namely module design, system
architecture design, database design, user interfaces design.
3.2.1 Module Design
Figure 5: Class Diagram for the system design of the proposed IoT Piggy Bank
UML class diagram is used to describe the structure of the proposed prototype as shown in Figure 5 above. There
are 3 main classes which are user, saving record and statistics, whereas the children class and parents class are
derived from the user class. Besides, parent can view the statistics of savings trends and daily saving records
created by the children.
3.2.2 System Architecture Design
Figure 6 below illustrates the system architecture design of the IoT Piggy Bank that consists of Arduino Uno
which is connected with Cytron ESP8266 WiFi shield as a controller and communication module to become an
integrated central component. This integrated central component will be used to connect all the requirement IoT
devices which are IR sensor, Buzzer, servo motor and LCD screen. Besides that, the IoT device is also connected
to an online database and mobile app to allows parents to monitor their children’s saving behaviour.
Figure 6: System Architecture Design of the proposed IoT Piggy Bank
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When the user inserts a coin into the piggy bank, the servo motor will serve as a coin gate at the coin entrance and
the IR sensor connected to the Arduino Uno will detect the incoming coin and recognize its value. The value
detected is calculated and send to the cloud database. Then, the value inserted will be retrieved from the cloud
database to be displayed on the LCD screen after one complete round of money insertion. On the other hand, user
can access the mobile app to track the saving trend over a period of time. The information stores inside the mobile
app is also retrieved from the cloud database. When user resets the total amount of money in the mobile app after
a goal has been achieved, then the LCD display attached to the Arduino will also be reset to the default value. The
mobile app and the online database perform two-way communications with the Arduino. Lastly, when the Arduino
tracks that the user did not save money for a period of time, the buzzer will sound and notify the user.
3.2.3 Database Design
Another class diagram is used to model the logical design of the database for the proposed IoT Piggy Bank. Figure
7 shows the entities of the database and the relationships between each entity, where the user can set saving goals,
saves money, and get reminder alerts.
Figure 7: Databased Design of the proposed IoT Piggy Bank
3.2.4 Software User Interface and Prototype Design
3.2.4.1 IoT Piggy Bank Mobile App User Interface Design
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Figure 8: User Interfaces for IoT Piggy Bank mobile app: (a) Main interface (b) Saving goal setting (c) Kid’s
monthly saving trend and (d) Frequency of reminder
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Figure 8 shows some user interfaces of the mobile app for the proposed IoT Piggy Bank. The parents are allowed
to choose from the options provided on the main page (a) and they can set a saving goal for their kids as in (b).
Besides that, parents can monitor the saving behaviour of their children by viewing the saving trend (c) and the
reminder alert occurrence (d) to know how often their children have not been saving any money.
3.2.4.2 IoT Piggy Bank Prototype Design
The hardware setup design of the prototype is shown in Figure 9 below where a breadboard is used as a base to
connect with all the hardware components.
Arduino Uno
yellow
Cytron Wi-Fi Shield
cyan
blue
LCM I2C Module
Servo Motor red
black black
white
LCD shield
yellow
Buzzer IR sensors
Figure 9: The hardware setup design for the IoT Piggy Bank prototype
4 System Implementation
Implementation of the IoT Piggy Bank includes hardware and software implementation. Figure 10 shows the
outer design of the IoT Piggy Bank prototype. The blue data cable is used to connect to a power bank or computer
USB port. Coin should be inserted into the coin hole and wait for the inner coin gate to open again before the next
coin is inserted. There is also a light indicator that indicates a coin is detected at the coin gate and has been inserted
in the collector correctly. The value of inserted coins is displayed on the LCD screen.
LCD screen
Coin Hole
Light Indicator
Figure 10: Outer look of the IoT Piggy Bank prototype
Figure 11 shows the internal structure of the IoT Piggy Bank prototype. When user inserts a coin into the coin
gate, the servo motor will open, and the coin can slide in the coin slope to the respective coin collectors based on
the coin value detected. The coin is detected once it passes through the coin slot and is sensed by the IR sensors.
The buzzer will sound if user did not save money continuously for a period of three days onwards.
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Coins collectors
Servo Motor
Coin slope
IR sensors
Figure 11: The inner design (Top View) of the IoT Piggy Bank prototype
It is worth discussing that the implementation phase is one of the most important phases and some difficulties
have been encountered. To connect every wire in a correct position is considered a moderate difficulty task
however the most challenging problem occurs during the electronic components building process. For example,
the IR sensors should have their positions correctly set to capture the falling moment of a coming coin, some coins
might have skipped from the sensing process and are not being tracked due to their falling pose. Besides, the
prototype sliding slope may obstruct the movement of a coming coin due to the surface of the material made and
this would take few times of coins sliding in order to reduce the friction and a later smooth flow. To overcome
this problem, grease is first to be tried by applying it on the sliding slope however this has caused the coin is
sliding down too fast and missed off the coin slots. The sliding slope material is also affected by the humidity
where the coins will not be able to slide smoothly.
5 Testing and Result Analysis
Two types of testing have been performed on the proposed prototype, functional testing and User Acceptance
Testing (UAT). For functional testing, there is a total of 11 test cases have been carried out across 6 use cases.
Out of 11 test cases, 10 had passed and only one failed. The coin detection test case failed due to the coin falling
position was escaped away from the IR sensor detection and caused an inaccurate result as discussed in the
previous section. This problem had been observed and improved by adding a valve on each coin slot to avoid the
falling coins away from sensor detection, hence increased the accuracy rate of coin detection from 50% to 90%.
On the other hand, an UAT has also been carried out by 15 potential users, where 10 parents (5 couples) and 5
children of these pair of parents in the age range of 6 to 8 took part in this testing. These users are required to
test on both the piggy bank prototype and the mobile app according to the instructions given and the answer to
the survey questions after completed the testing.
The survey is diversified into 3 perspectives which are product suitability, product functionality and product
satisfaction. Result analysis shows that there are more than 90% of parents believe (60% agreed and 30% strongly
agreed) that the IoT Piggy Bank is suitable for their child to instil saving habits as shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Graph of Product Suitability Perspective Survey Result (Parents)
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From the children perspective, 80% of the testers expressed that they had a lot of fun trying on the IoT Piggy Bank
as shown in Figure 12. This implies that children are showing a positive reaction to it and drive them to continue
using it for saving in the future.
Figure 11: Graph of Product Satisfaction Survey Result (Children)
From the product functionality survey analysis, most of the users were able to operate the piggy bank based on
the instructions given. This has proven that the prototype and mobile application are user-friendly, both the piggy
bank prototype and mobile application are synchronized smoothly and correctly. Moreover, the alarm can remind
users when children do not perform saving in 3 days consecutively. In the case of power outage either accidentally
or intentionally, the alarm function and saving goal will be resumed after power is back on. Therefore, every plus
point above mentioned is showing the IoT piggy bank is helpful for children to instil their saving behaviours.
Figure 14: Graph of Product Functionality Perspective Survey Result
The overall results of the survey in 3 perspectives, product suitability, product functionality and product
satisfaction are summarized in Table 1 below:
Table 1: Survey Result Interpretation
Product Suitability Product Satisfaction Product Functionality
What did I find? Most of the parents agree Most of the children are Most of the users have a
that the IoT piggy bank is greatly satisfied with the good user experience on
suitable for cultivating their IoT piggy bank and showing using the new developed
children’s saving positive feedbacks. IoT Piggy Bank
behaviour. prototype.
What did I not The survey did not include The survey did not include The survey did not
find? which perspective of the that which part of the investigate on which
suitability attracted parents. product that makes children function does user like
most satisfy while using it. the most.
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What did I find that The survey portrayed an The survey conveys a The IoT Piggy Bank is
I was not expecting unexpected high message that children are very user friendly where
to find? acceptance rate of parents adapting themselves to every user knows how it
regarding this product. technology. works according to
instructions given.
6 Contributions, Limitations and Future Works
Apart from tracking the saving behaviours of the children, this project is focusing on developing an IoT piggy
bank to help children save money and form saving habits more systematically. The main contributions of this
project are the children can learn the value of money from the items they wish to buy while at the same time they
also learn how to justify, negotiate, and make agreements during their discussion with parents before setting their
saving goals and practice to save money regularly until their goals are achieved. Throughout the process, children
might be get distracted by other factors, for instance desiring for other new items, being forgetful and etc.,
therefore children also learn to have self-control and stay persistent towards achieving their goals as the eventually
formed the saving habit. The amount tracking displayed on LCD screen and mobile app provide visuals that
illustrate their saving goals and how their money is growing would encourage them to keep going. Meanwhile,
parents also played important role in teaching children the value of money through their daily economic
transactions and inculcate children the importance of saving money by encouraging children to save money for
the things they want to buy.
One of the limitations of this IoT prototype is the user unable to insert coins into the coin hole continuously, where
the coin gate will close after a coin is inserted and user must wait for a while until the coin gate is opened again
for user to enter the next coins. This is to ensure the sensor able to detect the falling coin perfectly and track the
inserted coins values accurately. Another limitation of this product is it cannot be operated if there is internet
interruption, or the network is down unexpected. The internet connection will affect the data tracking of money
saving when there is a connection loss. To avoid the problem, the internet connection stability should be checked
and configured frequently. Besides, a negative reinforcer (buzzing alarm) is used to remind children to save
regularly might temporarily work for a short-term period. Children will become indifferent to the alarm over time
and unmotivated to continue saving in a long run.
For future works, this IoT piggy bank prototype can be enhanced by modifying it into a more humanized
mechanism, for instance, to include an indicator to notify the user before the coin gate closes to overcome the
problem of late coin insertion timing that clashes just before the coin gate closed or allow user to insert coins
continuously without falling into timing restriction and always perfect coin detection. Furthermore, the other
future work is to add the ability to store offline data such as coin insertion during network down. Then, despite
the internet connection being down, children still able to save money into the piggy bank and the data will be
updated back to the server once the internet connection is resumed. Lastly, positive reinforcers could be added to
the piggy bank itself to raise children’s interest in a more effective way such as playing their favourite song or
movie for them through the app whenever they have achieved certain portions of their saving goals. This will
make them feel more rewarded and motivated to keep on saving in a much more interesting way.
7 Conclusions
In conclusion, the IoT piggy bank prototype and a mobile application have been developed successfully. Children
are able to set their saving goals and save up regular for the items they wish to have. Children are frequently
reminded with a buzzer when they have not saved money for consecutive 3 days. Both saving trends and the
frequency of reminder alerts can be viewed by parents to monitor the saving behaviour of their children. The
feedbacks have shown that children were having a lot of fun while they are practising the habit of saving money
and parents believe that the proposed IoT Piggy Bank helps inculcate the habit of saving in their children.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all the faculty members of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information
Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and friends who participated in the interviews and usability testing,
without their support the study could not have been conducted.
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