Moody Melody

What it does

The device utilises sound frequency technologies to analyse the emotional context of speech, converting into corresponding melodies and colours, aiding emotional understanding throughout neurotypical communication

Your inspiration

Moody Melody was designed to combat the lack of in-expensive therapy devices for neurodivergent children, focusing on giving every individual the chance to live in a fully accessible world. Using the designers interest in how different music effects the brain, music therapy was researched in-depth highlighting a fully viable emotional therapy which is yet to be integrated into nerodivergent products.

How it works

The melodies produced temporarily bypass the temporoparietal junction, responsible for processing emotions which are over wired for autistic individuals. When the music is played, the wires untangle and emotions are understood🎶 Moody Melody advocates for a more inclusive classroom environment, aimed at supporting autistic children with processing complex emotions, promoting healthy peer relationships. Key Features: 🎶 Interchangeable skins 🎶 Bluetooth headphone compatibility 🎶 Low-stimuli mood lighting

Design process

Initial Research: The research conducted identified that key stakeholders for the product would be autistic individuals within primary mainstream education, due to the limited number of resources, money and time provided towards neurodivergent educational environments. Additionally, the importance of using music to aid emotional understanding has been highlighted throughout research, resulting in this being the chosen area of study for this design. Progress: A common trait of autistic individuals is strong attachments to objects to self-soothe and reduce anxiety when socialising. To allow imaginations to flourish and grow a bond with the character [product], the product was designed purposely without a pre-defined character profile, allowing children to project their own personality onto the character. It was paramount to the designer to include neutral eye expressions and no mouth, to avoid juxtaposing the purpose of the product, to detect emotions for those who struggle to understand emotions on their own. Electronics: an audio spectrum analyser was used to sample the author’s voice in different emotional states to create a directory for the software correlating to pre-defined melodies. Samples would be recorded every time the microphone was triggered.

How it is different

Moody Melody has been specifically designed to be as low costing as possible while allowing for themed customisation to persuade interactions within autistic children. This product utilises a therapy which is proving to be the most invasive yet efficient means of allowing autistic children to understand emotions in conversations which has yet to be integrated into a products. To avoid class overstimulation, Bluetooth headphones can be used when being used individually. Primary research showed that bone conductive headphones have the correct ratio of audio output and outside noise for users to still concentrate on a conversation as they are open-ear bone-conducting. However Moody Melody can be used with any bluetooth headphone making it more accessible.

Future plans

The future for Moody Melody is looking bright, working on user testing to analyse the effects of different emotions within music to determine the most effective Melodies' for the product. Next, the electronics will be perfected and design tweaked to better fit the target market allowing for AI integration creating unique melodies each time the product is used. There is also the potential for the product to be integrated into the autism assessment centres to analyse their emotional understanding.

Awards