Synthesizer Changed How Children Experience Music #Flyah

As a part-time radio host and DJ, London-based product designer Dimitri Hadjichristou really loves music. But he often found himself wondering if there were others ways to experience it beyond the standard listening experience. In his search for a more fully immersive experience, he began speaking to people with hearing impairments in order to find out how they used touch and other senses to understand music. Now, he’s designed a device called Vi which helps hearing impaired children to experience sound in a playful way.
During his research, the designer learned about Donaldson’s School for the Deaf, where one day he sat in on a music lesson for kids and watched students use resonance boards. The kids would lie down on these boards as music played so they could “feel sound through vibrations.” By hooking the board up to a keyboard, the school let the kids control the sound coming through.

Watching this interaction inspired the design for Vi. Hadjichristou explains more about the experience:

I noticed then that there was a far more enthusiastic response solely because the child had control, they were feeling what they were playing, giving them a greater understanding for what they felt opposed to just feeling vibrations. However, the board was enormous, over-complicated, and didn’t embody a sense of playfulness that children need so my aim was to redesign it into a smaller, intuitive, childish product.

Using a speaker and a set of Korg littleBits—pieces that users can put together to create what the website describes as an “analog synthesizer”—the object allows kids to create their own sound patterns. You simply set up the cone-like object, arrange the pieces and twist the knobs. This causes ball-bearings to vibrate and move with the sound, giving users the chance to both visualize and feel the sounds.
When Hadjichristou brought Vi to Donaldson’s, “kids played with it for hours.” The device has now been exhibited at the Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show and the New Designers Part 2 exhibition in London.

Hadjichristou noticed that kids with autism also seemed to react positively to the device. This proves that the it “works effectively among a whole range of children” and could lead to other design possibilities. All it takes is a synthesizer and some creativity.
Dimitri Hadjichristou

Instead of forcing constant hot swaps of low-battery devices into the single USB port your computer carries, InfiniteUSB promises the connection of all cables, meaning all of your devices can finally be charged simultaneously! As a color-coded open chain of USB ports that’s compatible with iOS and Android (among other USB supported devices), charging your devices has never been as easy or time efficient as with the addition of the InfiniteUSB.

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Instead of forcing constant hot swaps of low-battery devices into the single USB port your computer carries, InfiniteUSB promises the connection of all cables, meaning all of your devices can finally be charged simultaneously! As a color-coded open chain of USB ports that’s compatible with iOS and Android (among other USB supported devices), charging your devices has never been as easy or time efficient as with the addition of the InfiniteUSB.
Equipped with a built-in magnetic design to remove wild wires and tangled cables, InfiniteUSB is available in 20cm and 120cm lengths as blue, yellow, orange, red or grey cables.
Contrary to what the name suggests, the USB bus is limited to 127 devices per controller (including the root hub), though the team recommends no more than six plugged-in devices at a time for optimal user experience (with regard to power dispersion). That said, data transfer is supported throughout any and all linked InfiniteUSBs, be it lightning, micro or female.

Having just finished its Kickstarter phase, boasting 3,320 backers pledging a grand total of $247,214 USD, the company is now taking pre-orders.
With slim and regular models, the company’s manufacturer Vojotech Inc. has ensured that all models will be true to size as according to the pictures on Kickstarter. The team is additionally working on a working USB-C prototype, expected to debut some time in April.
InfiniteUSB