[ Spectrum ]
Over-ear headphones for people with autism
Personal Project | 2021 | 3 months
Individual
Problem
People with autism suffer a lot in social situations. They have heightened sensory issues, especially oversensitive hearing, which makes it harder for them to focus on one specific audio at a time. This extreme sound input leads to overwhelming conditions such as seizures and panic attacks.
Keywords
Inclusive design | Form study | CMF | Headphones
Awards
IF Design Talent Award 2022 - Winner
Taiwan Design Award 2022- Winner
BraunPrize 2021 - Winner Spl mention
Behance feature - 2022 - Product Design category
MIT wpu 2022 - Jury’s choice award
Concept
Spectrum is a noise-cancelling headphones which features an optical heart rate monitoring system which constantly monitors the heart rate, detects anxiety attacks & relieves the user from the attack. It also has cardioid microphones which automatically detects and enables only the closest audio by neutralising the background noise. Only when a nearby person calls out the user's name or mentions any conversation starters (hey, excuse me etc.) the speak only feature gets enabled.
Research
Identifying key pain points for a person with ASD when it comes to public places informed a variety of concepts and interventions that improves the user experience for the user.
How might we...
design a device for kids and adults with autism (kanner’s, aspergers’s, SPD) which detects anxiety attacks & helps the user converse normally in a noisy environment?
The idea behind Spectrum's visual appeal was to create a form language that stands apart from what is available in the market which is filled with plain chunky headphones. Starting with post-it ideation, identifying the strongest direction by combining a few and defining the details using Blender 3D ideation was the workflow.
To figure out if the concept of OHRM in the temporal pulse area would work, a quick arduino test cleared up as the proof of concept. Once the visual and form of the headphones was defined, it was remodelled in Rhino with correct dimensions concerning anthropometric measurements. Quick prototyping was done to hatch out the finer design details and CMF options.
What makes Spectrum different?
It is the FIRST of its KIND to cater to such a user base where their daily struggles are unnoticed and not solved. There are 2 main features in spectrum which elevates the whole experience of using these headphones.
CMF
The 3 SKUs of Spectrum marks the major sections of the colour spectrum(RGB) while keeping the hue more muted and less bright. The cushion and fabric on the earcups and headband are soft and comforting, less stimulating to the touch.
Thank You!
