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Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj by Haoye Dong, Kecheng Jin and Xueyan Cai

Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj by Haoye Dong, Kecheng Jin and Xueyan Cai is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award i Jern in Legetøj, Spil og Hobbyprodukter Design Competition Category.


JernLegetøj· 2024

Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj

by Haoye Dong, Kecheng Jin and Xueyan Cai

Client: Zhejiang University

A' Design Award i Jern Winner in Legetøj Category

Colors

The Design

About Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj

Poly Beat er et rytmeøvelseslegetøj designet til børn. Geometriske polygoner bruges til at gøre musikalsk rytme synlig, hvilket hjælper børn med at forstå toner og rytmemønstre. Legetøjet er fremstillet af sprøjtestøbt plast. Børn indsætter nodeklodser i skiver og placerer fire skiver i en søjlebase. Et kamera øverst aflæser klodsernes farver, og en knap afspiller den tilhørende rytmiske lyd. En anden knap skifter lyden til trommer, marimba, klaver eller guitar. Fri sammensætning af klodserne giver børn mulighed for at skabe deres egne rytmer.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award i Jern

Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj er vinder af A' Design Award i Jern, en prestigefyldt anerkendelse, der tildeles gode designs, som opfylder de professionelle og industrielle krav, man forventer af veldesignede skabelser. Jernvinderne viser stor dygtighed, høj specialisering, ekspertforståelse og kreativ kapacitet hos deres skabere. Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj forventes at være en højt estimeret, beundret og kær skabelse, der er praktisk og innovativ. Dette design, der har vundet A' Design Award i Jern, integrerer branchens bedste praksis og har kompetente tekniske egenskaber knyttet til knowhow og talent. Poly Beat Rytmeøvelseslegetøj respekteres for sin grundighed og er designet til at levere forbedringer af livskvaliteten, der er med til at gøre verden til et bedre sted.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
PolyBeat is designed for children, aiming to help them learn music theory through a fun and interactive way. Geometric polygons have a strong correlation with music rhythm, which can visualize the sound of rhythm, help children understand the relationship between music genres and drum rhythm patterns, and figure out the rhythm pattern.
Dimensions & Packaging
The dimension of the product is 140mm*140mm*280mm, and the dimensions of each disc are 130mm*130mm*18mm
Tags
Music Interaction Tool, Multi-sensory, Children, Visualization, Rhythm Learning
Production Technology
The product is made of injection-moulded plastic and uses a camera on the top to identify the colour of the blocks that the child is building, so that the corresponding music can be played.
Design Challenge
PolyBeat offers children with a new multi-sensory way to learn rhythm and provides an easy-to-use tool for children to create music . However, the musical score also includes pitches and more complex advanced beats. We did not evaluate whether PolyBeat can have a long-term impact on children’s learning and interests. We will conduct a long-term follow-up study to further evaluate the practical effects of PolyBeat in music education. In the future, we could consider how to better integrate PolyBeat into real-world scenarios, such as home and school, to expand the possibilities of multi-player collaboration.
Research
Orff Schulwerk teaching method encourages that children should feel and express music with whole heart and improvisation. But understanding the abstract concept of musical notes is still very difficult. We propose PolyBeat, a toy that provides interactive rhythm practice and creation for children. The tool visualizes the abstract notes in a multi-sensory way to develop children’s musicality with a more interesting, gamified learning procedure. We designed 8 types of tangible blocks which can be stacked like a rainbow tower to represent basic notes, distinguished with different colors and block sizes. Children can play in two modes: a) learning mode and b) creation mode. We conducted a user study to evaluate children’s rhythmic control. The results show that PolyBeat significantly stimulated children’s interest in playing music, thus improving the efficiency of children’s rhythmic education and creativity in music.
Inspiration
For preschool children, they can try simple clapping and tapping exercises based on music. However, the current music education system requires learners to repeat the exercises many times, which is boring and tedious for them. Building blocks are always a favourite type of toy for children, so we wanted children to be able to learn and create music through the use of building blocks.
Project Duration
The project started in April 2023 in Zhejiang, China and finished in August 2023 in Zhejiang, China
Operation Flow
Children can assemble the blocks freely to create their own rhythms. The child inserts each music note block into the disc, and then puts the disc into the column base. After 4 discs are put into the column base, the child can press the "Play Music" button to play the corresponding rhythmic sound. When the child presses the "Switch Instrument" button, the rhythmic sound can be switched to different instruments, including drums, marimba, piano, guitar, and so on.
Team Members
Leijing Zhou
Haoye Dong
Kecheng Jin
Xueyan Cai
Shichao Huang
Zhengke Li
Xin An
Shang Shi
Xiaolong Li
Yuqi Hu
Cheng Yao
Image Credits
Haoye Dong
Kecheng Jin

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