Love Birds
Wearable technology
Love Birds is a piece of wearable technology designed to extend the user’s sensory awareness. The masks translate the wearer’s heart rate into the movement of feathers, allowing users to visually perceive each other’s reactions and responses. In this way, the hidden rhythms of the heart are exposed.
Assignment
The focus of this assignment was to design a wearable technology that extends the user’s sensory awareness, offering new ways to perceive and interact with the world through the use of sensors. To ground the concept in a real-world context, we designed our wearable for a speed-dating party, addressing the challenge of understanding what your partner thinks or feels in such an environment.
Process
Together with my teammate, we decided to celebrate nature in our design. We drew inspiration from birds and their use of feathers to attract mates. With this concept in mind, we explored various ways to mimic the movement of feathers and observed the reactions it evoked from users. Our prototyping process began with simple designs, gradually incorporating more technology and refining the functionality with each iteration.
Challenge
The biggest challenge we faced was designing a compact mechanism to keep the masks lightweight and comfortable for the user. Ensuring the pull system was efficient required multiple iterations before we streamlined the design. Ultimately, we succeeded in creating a mechanism that allowed the feathers to move using just a single servo motor, balancing functionality with user comfort.
Result
Love Birds is an interactive wearable designed to immerse users in conversation by revealing their emotions through movement. A heart rate sensor attached to the user’s ear detects changes in heart rate, causing the feathers to move more as the heart rate increases. This creates a sense of comfort and excitement during interactions, allowing users to gauge each other’s reactions. The playful nature of the wearable often sparks laughter and serves as an effective icebreaker, making conversations more engaging and memorable.
