Resonat Frame
Year
2024
Fields
Interaction Design
Product Design
Mechatronics
Industrial Design
Role
Researcher
Designer
Programmer
Overview
Providing Awareness of the Domestic Soundscape
This three-month thesis project explored innovative methods to enhance individuals' awareness and engagement with domestic soundscapes, particularly in the living room. By investigating current indoor activity patterns and design gaps, the project developed prototypes that embody modern indoor experiences through implicit interactions.
It addresses the gaps in research on the topic, particularly in interaction design and Human-Computer Interaction, an area that is relatively under-explored and often misunderstood but offers significant potential for enhancing user experience, by offering a tangible reflection of the domestic soundscape to make it more comprehensible and to raise inhabitants' awareness about it.
Problem Statment
Why the Domestic Soundscape?
The domestic soundscape is an under-explored area within Interaction Design and Human-Computer Interaction, despite the significant role that everyday sounds play in our interactions at home. There is a lack of awareness and intuitive design around these acoustic environments, leading to missed opportunities for improving daily interactions. This project seeks to address the challenge of designing implicit interactions that enhance awareness of the domestic soundscape, making everyday interactions more intuitive and harmonious.
Key Research Findings
Living Room Focus
The research identified the living room as the central activity hub, making it the ideal location for the sound visualization prototype. This room's multifunctional nature ensures that the prototype captures a broad spectrum of domestic sounds, making it relevant and useful in a highly frequented area.
Implicit Interactions
Implicit interactions, which do not require explicit user commands, were deemed the best fit for the prototype as it allows for an automatic response to the auditory environment, integrating seamlessly into daily routines and enhancing user experience by being intuitive and unobtrusive.
Non-Disruptive Design
The prototype was designed to be aesthetically pleasing and non-disruptive, blending harmoniously into the living room. This ensures that it does not interfere with daily activities while also complementing the room’s decor, making the technology both attractive and practical.
Addressing Non-Awareness
Sound Intensity Feedback
Frequency over Tempo
The research aimed to address the initial non-awareness of the domestic soundscape in individuals. The prototype gently guides users towards greater awareness and understanding of their home’s auditory environment through unobtrusive sound visualisation through out the day providing awareness to the individuals.
The prototype provides real-time feedback on sound intensity and occurrence, increasing awareness of the living room’s acoustic environment. This dynamic feedback helps inhabitants better understand and recognize the sounds around them, fostering a greater appreciation of their domestic soundscape.
Frequency was chosen over tempo for sound visualization due to its ability to provide a more detailed and nuanced representation. Given the minimal tempo variation in the domestic soundscape, frequency allows for a richer and more informative visual representation of sound.
Design Process
Exploratory Sound Visualization Experiments
Experiments were conducted to explore the visual aspects of sound, each offering unique insights and enhancing understanding of sound representation. The varied approaches, laser experiments for precise sound wave representation, cymatic experiments for illustrating sound through physical patterns, and digital experiments for exploring various digital representations, allowed the project to explore multiple dimensions of sound visualizations and interactions. These experiments contributed to developing a more effective and engaging prototype, identifying the most intuitive and impactful ways to bring the domestic soundscape to the tangible forefront for users.
Concept Development and Ideation
During ideation, I brainstormed various ideas and explored multiple design directions through sketches, including abstract patterns, dynamic shapes, and colour variations. Experimenting with visual metaphors like waves and ripples, I sought a representation in the form of a product that would blend into the living room without being intrusive and feel natural in the setting. The chosen concept, the Resonant Frame, visualizes soundscapes within a picture frame format. Inspired by interviews and observations, it dynamically represents sound frequencies through surface movements, balancing aesthetics and user experience while remaining unobtrusive.
*Created with Gencraft
Prototype Development and Testing
The Resonant Frame was built using an Arduino microcontroller, a microphone, linear actuators, cork-textile, and a frame to capture and display the soundscape in real time. Six stepmotors, each measuring a specific frequency range through a microphone, move blocks to low, medium, or high positions based on amplitude and frequency occurrence and leve. The actuators translate these frequencies into physical movements every 30 seconds, creating an intuitive visual representation of the domestic soundscape. Extensive testing and user interaction feedback guided adjustments, resulting in a functional and engaging device that enhances awareness of the acoustic environment through implicit interactions.
Material Selection for Design
The design aimed to evoke the calm and reflective qualities of nature, drawing inspiration from the serene atmosphere of the forest. Envisioned as a soft, inviting addition to a modern living room, the piece was intended to integrate with a coherent and holistic aesthetic. Initially, a fully wooden construction was considered to provide a tactile connection to nature, with early prototypes featuring a wooden base paired with paper as a cheaper alternative to veneer for the moving parts.
However, the available veneer was too thick and brittle, and time constraints ruled out ordering materials online. After considering various fabrics for a softer texture, cork textile was ultimately chosen for its natural look, durability, and flexibility. This material allowed the final piece to reflect the calming essence of nature while seamlessly integrating into a modern living room space.
Outcome
Harmonizing Technology with the Domestic Soundscape
The Resonant Frame prototype successfully transformed the acoustic environment into a tangible experience. By visualizing sound intensity through physical waves on the surface, users could perceive otherwise invisible sound waves, making the domestic soundscape more understandable. The system effectively categorized a broad spectrum of frequencies, ensuring that both subtle and prominent sounds were captured and accurately represented. This real-time dynamic visualization allowed users to observe changes in sound levels, helping them become more attuned to the acoustic dynamics of their space.
Enhancing Soundscape Awareness Through Subtle, Interactions
The focus on implicit interaction, where the prototype passively responded to ambient sounds, was crucial in maintaining a non-intrusive presence. Interviews and observations confirmed that users preferred subtle interactions over flashy displays, leading to a design that harmonized with the natural soundscape rather than disrupting it.
User tests were conducted with four participants in a typical living room and provided feedback on its aesthetic appeal, though interpretations of the prototype’s function varied. Some saw it as a tool for measuring ambient sounds, while others likened it to a sound diffuser. This feedback revealed a need for clearer communication of its purpose or a redesign, with suggestions for refining visual cues and adding more complex movements to better convey sound intensity.
The Continuation
Industrial Thinking and Development
As the original project concluded, it felt unfinished, as many issues emerged during the development process that I wanted to address. Incorporating industrial design thinking offered a way to refine the product, adding a level of polish and functionality that could transform it from a prototype into a finished product. This involved creating detailed CAD drawings in a new and redefined design, with accurate measurements using standardized, easily sourced components and materials, all aimed at enhancing durability and practicality during production, and giving the product a more professional, market-ready appearance.
Outcome
Note
This project was conducted as part of my thesis paper for my Bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, which received a pass with distinction from David Cuartielles, one of Arduino's co-founders. The paper can be found here.
