Birdy 揚聲器 by Leijing Zhou and Xin An is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 鐵獎 in 音響產品設計 Competition Category.

鐵音響產品· 2023

Birdy 揚聲器

by Leijing Zhou and Xin An

Client: Zhejiang University

A' Design Award 鐵獎 Winner in 音響產品 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 揚聲器

Birdy係一款揚聲器,配備雀仔形狀嘅控制桿,方便用戶用手操控音樂播放。下半部分係錐形揚聲器,內置兩個5W驅動單元同雙聲道D類放大器。錐體頂部有一個搖桿感應器,可以偵測雀仔造型喺兩條軸向嘅移動。將雀仔前後擺動可以調校音量,左右擺動就可以揀選上一首或者下一首歌。Birdy仲可以做智能家居助手,能夠回應雀叫聲。呢個設計嘅目的係喺人同科技之間,建立一種自然而富有情感嘅連結。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 鐵獎

Birdy 揚聲器是 A' Design Award 鐵獎得主，這是授予滿足人們對設計精良的創作所期待的專業與工業要求的優良設計的聲望認可。鐵獎得主展現出其創作者的高超技藝、高度專業化、專家級的理解力和創造能力。預計Birdy 揚聲器將成為一件備受推崇、令人欽佩且被珍愛的創作，既實用又創新。這件贏得 A' Design Award 鐵獎的設計整合了行業最佳實踐，並擁有與專業知識和才華相結合的稱職技術特性。Birdy 揚聲器因其嚴謹而受到尊重，旨在提供有助於讓世界變得更美好的生活品質改善。

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