Harmony Amulet

Harmony Amulet - By Bram

Concept

The harmony amulet is designed to not only be functional, but also creates aesthetic value. The design does not only guide their user through the home. It collects the activities that the user has done throughout the day. The amulet creates personalised art that exists out of blue, orange and white leds. The leds represent the chores and social activities that the user did in the last 24 hours. A random led is altered at the end of every hour. The symbolic representation tells a story. It can function as a conversation piece that gets people to talk about their day.

User & usage

The design of the amulet is tailored to needs of the twins. The twins represent young teenagers that are going through exploratory times. They might still be kids, but start to look less childish experiences. The amulet provides a simplistic interaction with the other devices. A simple bump with the back of the amulet to another device transfers a planned activity. The amulet itself does not include a planning function and can thus only receive activities from the system or from other devices. The twins are young and have a “plan in the moment” lifestyle. They will seek each other in the moment to do a social activity instead of planning it far ahead. In the instance that the kids want to plan something further ahead they can check with a parent to see if it is possible to do so.

The art on the amulet represents the day of their user and tries to encourage them to wear the amulet as much as possible. The art is created by looking back at the activity of the last hour. If a social activity took place a randomly picked led on the interface will become orange. If a chore has been done a randomly picked led on the interface will become blue. If no activity was recorded in the past hour a randomly picked led will become white. The randomization makes sure that the art is a general representation and does not feel like close monitoring.

Functionality

The amulet has to functional states. When the device is in horizontal mode, which is triggered by holding the device in your hand, it functions the same way other devices in the product family would. The leds on the display guide the user through the home to activities or chores.

When the device is in vertical mode, which is triggered by letting the device hang freely, it will shows the activities done by the individual that day as described previously. Blue leds represent chores and orange leds social activities. Fig.15: Amulet prototype

Fig.16: Amulet horizontal state