Birdy スピーカー by Leijing Zhou and Xin An is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 鉄賞 in オーディオ・サウンド機器デザイン Competition Category.

鉄オーディオ製品· 2023

Birdy スピーカー

by Leijing Zhou and Xin An

Client: Zhejiang University

A' Design Award 鉄賞 Winner in オーディオ製品 Category

16,701

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #149441

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Birdy スピーカー

Birdyは、鳥の形をしたコントロールスティックにより、音楽再生を手で操作できるスピーカーです。下部は円錐形のスピーカーで、5Wのドライバー2基とデュアルチャンネルのD級アンプを搭載しています。コーン上部に配置されたジョイスティックセンサーが、鳥のフィギュアの動きを2軸で検知します。鳥のフィギュアを前後に傾けると音量を調整でき、左右に傾けると前の曲や次の曲を選択できます。またBirdyは、鳥のさえずりで応答するスマートホームアシスタントとしても機能します。このデザインは、人とテクノロジーの間に自然で情緒的なつながりを生み出すことを目指しています。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 鉄賞

Birdy スピーカーは、よく設計された創造物に期待される専門的・産業的要件を満たす優れたデザインに授与される、権威ある評価である A' Design Award 鉄賞の受賞作品です。鉄賞の受賞作品は、制作者の高い技量、高度な専門性、専門家としての理解、創造的な能力を示しています。Birdy スピーカーは、高く評価され、称賛され、愛される、実用的で革新的な創造物であることが期待されます。この A' Design Award 鉄賞を受賞したデザインは、業界のベストプラクティスを統合し、ノウハウと才能に結びついた有能な技術的特性を備えています。Birdy スピーカーは、その徹底ぶりで尊敬され、世界をより良い場所にするための生活の質の向上をもたらすよう設計されています。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: Birdy provides a more engaging way to control music playback. With its bird-shaped game stick, users can interact with their music in a unique and interesting way, making the experience feel more natural and intuitive. Designed to emulate the experience of touching and interacting with a live creature, Birdy provides a refreshing departure from traditional, lifeless speakers.
Dimensions & Packaging: The full height of the product is 316mm. The bottom cone speaker is 250mm high and the maximum diameter is 142mm.
Tags: Speaker, Emotional design, Bird, Bionics, Natural
Production Technology: The speaker features two 5W drivers with a dual-channel class D amplifier. On the top of the cone is a joystick sensor that detects the movement of the bird above it in both XY axes, thus controlling the music playback.
Design Challenge: The biggest challenge of the design is how to give an emotional connection to a technological artifact. We were inspired by the interaction between humans and birds, where birds have a natural connection to music. This led us to design Birdy, a speaker that offers a more natural and intuitive way to interact with technology, bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds.
Research: People communicate emotionally with their pets and we have studied various interactions between people and their pets and found that we were inspired by the interaction between humans and bird pets, where on the one hand birds have a natural connection to music and on the other hand their physical interaction between human and birds can be extracted as a way to control the music.
Inspiration: The design of Birdy is inspired by the way bird breeders often stroke and interact with their pets. The bird is located at the top and the bottom is a conical speaker. It is designed to foster emotional connections between users and the device, creating a more natural and seamless user experience.
Project Duration: The project started in March 2021 in Qingdao and finished in September 2022 in Ningbo.
Operation Flow: Users can control their music playback by swinging the bird-shaped game stick at the top, similar to a joystick. Swinging the bird backward or forward adjusts the volume, while swinging it left or right skips to the previous or next song. Additionally, Birdy is also a smart home assistant that responds to different bird calls.
Team Members: Leijing Zhou
Xin An
Image Credits: Xin An