Can we learn through sound and music?

In the final exercise of the ISD course we combined all that we had learned and experienced during the first week and designed both the sound- and form language of a conceptual product. The time available –9 days– for this exercise is limited. We were asked to identify a product –or create a new one– where the sound interface and audio characteristics are lacking, are of a poor design quality or are part of the product design. We then worked with both the physical form and the audio form, (this was also a form workshop!). We worked parallel with these two factors and strived to achieve a harmonious synthesis so that the resulting product and the sound it produced work as a unified whole. In this exercise we were also asked to consider how to introduce light effects as a part of the design in order to enhance the product experience and interaction.

Concept video

Description

Learning outcome: a calm environment and music help babies development.

Ilvy is a medium for a pregnant woman to develop an emotional bond with her unborn baby by using sound as a language.
Whenever the mother places Ilvy on her belly, the baby activity generates a poetic melody to which the mother listens. Heartbeats, movement, hiccups and kicks are monitorized to create a unique, artistic and relaxing experience. This way, the mother is encouraged to talk or sing to the baby. In return, the baby receives more care, attention and its senses are stimulated, benefitting its overall development. This creates a unique interaction loop, in which mother and baby connect emotionally in a way never experienced before.

Why it is unique

Pregnant women, especially those who are pregnant for the first time, tend to feel insecure and stressed about the pregnancy process. They feel that they carry a huge responsibility on their own shoulders and they are afraid to fail. On top of that, they receive little information about the baby’s well-being or don’t know how to interpret it.

However, a calm and relaxed mental state is one of the crucial factors during pregnancy and fetal development. And this is what we want to achieve with our concept.

The product we designed should be a companion for the mother-to-be during her whole pregnancy. Whenever the mother places Ilvy on her belly, the baby activity generates a poetic melody to which the mother listens.

As the fetus starts to move in uterus already from week 7 onwards, these movements can be captured and translated into sounds by our device. When the movements are getting more and more intense over the time and other occurrences happen (like baby might have hiccups from week 9), the sound the device generates is getting more and more rich. The result is a personal symphony composed by mother and child in the late weeks of the pregnancy.

Having this kind of access of communication will encourage mothers to talk more with their baby. It’s been proved that pleasant sounds such as mother’s voice or acoustic music pieces have a positive effect on the baby’s pulse and sleep routines. Thus “Ilvy” will improve the fetal development process.

Using Ilvy fathers and other relatives can achieve a high level of involvement and emotional support that was not possible before. Because of the fact the baby’s activity is activated through speech, even absent fathers can now remotely start to connect with their unborn children.

Ilvy functions fundamentally different than existing medical devices. We did not aim to replace hospital visits but instead, we tried to create an emotional and relaxing experience. This unique and novel decision influenced the product’s function, interaction and form.

We looked closely at in what environment the mother feels safe and comfortable that was also easily accessible. We wanted to avoid the interference of other people required and the inconvenience of having to move to a medical environment. We realized that placing our product in the home environment would be the perfect solution. Using “Ilvy” the mother can sit in a comfy chair at home, while being close to the father and relatives.

Another quality of Ilvy that contributes to the comfort of the mother is it’s unobtrusiveness. The mother is not required to learn new interactions but our product follows mother’s natural instinct of touching the belly and talking.

To extent the product’s lifecycle, our product is able to record these melodies and archive them. These recordings could benefit the baby after it is born. In one scenario, “Ilvy” could be placed next to the crib and playing the recordings, helping the baby to calm down.
Besides this after labour usage, the recorded sounds are a intimate and precious memory of this very special time for the mother and the whole family.

Truly unique about “Ilvy” is the reinforcing loop between mother and child. Both influence each other’s mental and physical well-being as simple and easy as possible.

Our process and the challenges

Translating the baby’s activity into a human-like, emotional sound, to which the mother would feel connected, was the biggest challenge. Many sound explorations resulted in technological and artificial sounds. Besides that, we tried to avoid sounds that could be associated with a medical device, so that the mother would misinterpret the baby’s wellbeing. We achieved this by finding just the right balance between a melody and generative art.

Another challenge was to design a product that wouldn’t distract the mother but would enable her to fully focus on the baby instead. We aimed to design an unobtrusive product that would naturally fit into the context.

In terms of interaction this meant we stayed close to a pregnant mother’s natural habits such as talking to the baby and placing the hands on the belly.

Concerning form, we tried semantically to achieve an inviting, friendly and human shape, while considering ergonomics. We ended up with this universal fitting shape for the purpose.

Process video

Process pictures