Voice Is The New Touch

Overview

During my study in Concept Development I had a project focused on human-machine interaction and how this interaction could be moved towards a touchless future. During the project, voice and sound was selected as a substitute to physical touch.

Problem statement:

‘How can voice and sound be used as a substitute for touch in human-machine interaction?’

Target group:

• Homeowners

Conceptualization

In this project, the main focus was on using voice as a means of switching on and off lights in homes. Thus, the conceptualization process began with a brainstorm on how to remove human touch from this interaction.

Early on in the process it was concluded that it would not be possible to remove human touch from the process entirely - as this solution would somehow need to be implemented into the home in the first place. We therefore switched our focus on decreasing the amount of touch needed, and if possible completely remove the need for touch after implementation of the solution.

Conceptual Prototype

To get the basic idea of the concept, I created a prototype via Adobe XD. The prototype consisted of two artboards, both displaying a desktop lamp - one turned off and one turned on. Technically the prototype used the built-in Adobe XD feature of using voice commands to switch artboards. Thus, each of the two artboards includes a ‘command line’ that one needs to speak out loud.

An arduino prototype was also created during this process. This prototype included simple wiring, four LED light bulbs and an on/off button. The button would symbolize the interaction with the solution, which would later be turned into a voice based interaction. This prototype was used to get a better idea of the functionality of the solution.

The Solution

As the solution would be used to switch lights on and off, it would need to have a physical form in some capacity. We therefore initiated another brainstorming and assembled a moodboard to visualize ideas and product needs.

After the creation of the moodboard, the idea of creating an ‘extension’ to power outlets came to mind. This solution would be an intermediate between the power outlet and the light source (lamp), and include a bluetooth connection to a microphone device (similar to Alexa and Google Assistant).

Result

This project concluded with a conceptual solution on how to decrease physical interaction with lamps. The solution does however present possible issues as similar products do exist already.