Body Voice 可穿戴乐器 by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai

Body Voice 可穿戴乐器 by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 铜奖 in 消费电子设计 Competition Category.

铜消费电子· 2021

Body Voice 可穿戴乐器

by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai

Client: Lihsing Wang

A' Design Award 铜奖 Winner in 消费电子 Category

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The Design

About Body Voice 可穿戴乐器

Body Voice是一款可穿戴乐器,让舞者能够通过舞蹈动作创作音乐。该套装包含无线夹片、移动应用程序和蓝牙音箱。每个夹片内置陀螺仪和加速度传感器,可佩戴于身体任意部位,通常固定在手臂和腿部。动作数据通过蓝牙传输至手机,应用程序将这些动作转化为声音,再经由蓝牙音箱播放。夹片采用无线充电方式。Body Voice颠覆了音乐与舞蹈之间的传统关系。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铜奖

Body Voice 可穿戴乐器是 A' Design Award 铜奖得主，这是授予以创造力、独创性和敏锐见长的杰出设计的极具声望的认可。铜奖得主是技艺娴熟、创意惊人的作品，印证了其设计师丰富的经验、想象力与机智。预计Body Voice 可穿戴乐器将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的物品，兼具显著的专业性与创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铜奖的设计融入艺术、科学、设计和技术领域的最佳实践，并因注重细节而出类拔萃。Body Voice 可穿戴乐器出色地满足需求，触动渴望，迷住情感，并吸引好奇心。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: The Body Voice is driven by technology, a wearable instrument that allows dancers to create music through their dance moves. Body voice is a set of designs, including the Clips, an App, and a Bluetooth speaker. The wireless Bluetooth clips are motion sensors that clip anywhere on dancer's bodies to collect their movements digitally and send them to the mobile phone. The user modifies it on an App where converts movements into music and plays it on the Bluetooth speaker.
Dimensions & Packaging: A single clip device, size:30*24*14.6mm. The speaker, size:140*125*180.4mm. The wireless charging, size:85*62*65.3mm. The Unity engine, Bluetooth 3.0.
Tags: Wireless, sound, movement, innovation, digital device, dance, instrument.
Production Technology: The wireless clips use a gyro-sensor and acceleration sensor to detect dance moves then transmit them to a mobile phone via Bluetooth 3.0 chip. The clips are charged wirelessly. And the App is driven by Unity software for converting movements to sounds. The speaker connects to a mobile phone by Bluetooth.
Design Challenge: In the most beginning, I considered hands as the way to express body emotion. Thus, I decided to design a product that can detect hand gestures and movements. Gloves, I used several sensors inserted in them for capturing the movements of hands and send the electronic signal to a computer for analyzing the gestures guided by the specific sound effect. However, after testing this prototype on dancers and receiving feedback from them, I decided to use a different way to capture the dance move; finally, using a clip functions as a motion detector gained great feedback from the users.
Research: If dancing is no longer a movement to follow music but to create music? Music and dance, in the general point of view, usually follow the rhythm of the music. Our brain processes the signal of music and reacts through the body. However, is it possible to reverse this process? In other words, our dance movements or gestures can create sounds and music? The Body Voice is a set of digital devices for dancers to create music through their dancing. Driven by technology, a wearable instrument reveals new possibilities in the art of dance.
Inspiration: Although music and dance are two art forms, dance often follows the rhythm of the music. The dancer’s creation is based on others, musicians, and work. It is contributed to a second creation. What if dance is no longer a movement that follows the music but creates music? The body voice subverts the conventional relationship between music and dance, redefines the possibility of free creations by analyzing dance’s movement, and converts it into music.
Project Duration: The project began in Taiwan in November 2017 and was completed Taiwan in June 2018.
Operation Flow: Open the Body Voice’s App for pairing your phone with the Clips. You can apply the Clips anywhere on your body, usually arms and legs, to receive your movements and transmit them to analysis on an App where you can define a dance move correspond to sound, customize your actions and music tracks. Choose the solo mode or ensemble mode to play it yourself or with friends. The solo runs on a smartphone, but the ensemble needs to connect each user’s phone to a computer and run on Unity.
Team Members: Lihsing Wang
Yulin Tsai
Image Credits: Image #1：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #2：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #3：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #4：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #5：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018