Birdy 音箱 by Leijing Zhou and Xin An is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 铁奖 in 音频与声音设备设计 Competition Category.

铁音频产品· 2023

Birdy 音箱

by Leijing Zhou and Xin An

Client: Zhejiang University

A' Design Award 铁奖 Winner in 音频产品 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 音箱

Birdy 是一款配备鸟形操控杆的音箱，用户可以用手直接管理音乐播放。下半部分为锥形音箱，内置两个 5W 扬声器单元和一枚双声道 D 类功放。锥体顶部的摇杆传感器可检测鸟形造型在两个轴向上的移动：将小鸟前后拨动可调节音量，左右拨动则可切换上一首或下一首歌曲。Birdy 还可作为智能家居助手，以鸟鸣声作出回应。该设计旨在于人与科技之间建立自然而富有情感的连接。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铁奖

Birdy 音箱是 A' Design Award 铁奖得主，这是授予满足人们对设计精良的创作所期待的专业与工业要求的优良设计的声望认可。铁奖得主展现出其创作者的高超技艺、高度专业化、专家级的理解力和创造能力。预计Birdy 音箱将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的创作，既实用又创新。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铁奖的设计整合了行业最佳实践，并拥有与专业知识和才华相结合的称职技术特性。Birdy 音箱因其严谨而受到尊重，旨在提供有助于让世界变得更美好的生活品质改善。

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