Not everyone likes listening to music, but even those will perhaps begrudgingly agree that certain kinds of music can have different effects on one’s mood or mental state. Next to entertainment or the sheer joy of listening to favorite tunes, the most common use of music is to set the right mood, whether it’s to relax, to get pumped, or to be more productive. That said, musical tastes can be quite subjective, and even the kind of harmonies that you like could be affected by your mood at any given time. It can be quite taxing to change playlists or tracks every time, so rather than relying on your fingers and your own mind, why not let your phone do the work for you? This desk speaker concept does exactly that, analyzing your mood and picking the right music to help you finish your work, studies, or any other task you need to get done.

Designer: Junyoung Lee

People who love playing music while they work most likely have a library of tunes selected to help massage their grey matter, especially during slow hours. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of music can be thwarted by moods, emotions, and physical conditions. Sometimes we’re just stuck in a slump and manually picking out a more appropriate playlist only adds to the stress and traps you in a vicious mental cycle.

MIX:X is a smart speaker system that uses the power of your smartphone and machine learning to automate that process so you won’t have to lift a finger when your brain or heart is just too tired to care. You simply dock the phone in front of the tall, boxy speaker to start the process. The large camera at the bottom keeps a constant watch on the person’s face in front of it, particularly their facial expressions, and using computer vision, machine learning, and algorithms, it tries to identify the mood that the person is in. Depending on what mood that is, it will switch to a different playlist that will help get you into a more productive working state.

Part of the MIX:X speaker’s solution is actually not the device itself but the app that comes with it. Here you select the songs that you like and associate them with certain moods. The app’s AI analyzes the music selection and uses that as a pool to choose from when your mood shifts one way or another. It doesn’t simply get music out of thin air (or the Internet), giving you some amount of control to limit the choices to your preferences.

In that sense, the MIX:X speaker is simply a box with speakers facing sideways and a camera, though it definitely has an interesting aesthetic. It has transparent panels for its sides and back, putting the sophisticated electronics inside on display. The rest of the device’s design is pretty minimal, with a single dial for the volume. If there’s one glaring flaw in its design, it’s the fact that it seems to support only a specific model or size of a specific phone, namely an iPhone, which severely limits how much this concept can be used outside of that single device.

The post Phone-powered smart speaker concept reads your mood to play the right music for work first appeared on Yanko Design.

There are parents who would like to wean their children every once in a while from screens because they believe that it may be rotting their brain or something. But even these parents will sometimes have to admit that they still need technology to manage their children’s lives or to teach them things like productivity and time management. So product developers are coming up with non-screen devices to help parents and kids navigate life.

Designer: Pupupula

The Little House Alarm Clock is one such device that has a pretty basic display but still utilizes technology to help children manage their time and schedule properly. It’s basically a smart speaker with a built-in intelligent voice assistant to help the kids (and maybe adults) out. The display will only show the time, date, temperature, humidity, as well as the time of the next alarm set, which means the next upcoming schedule.

The design is that of a tiny house that should look at home whether in the kid’s room or in your living room. It has a light source but it is underneath the outer shell to give off a softer look to its orange nightlight. There are only two buttons to make it simple: a red chimney and a blue mute button. They complement the minimalist design with its white body color. You can also adjust the backlight for the screen by pressing the chimney or through the app.

The alarm clock has four different customized nature themed alarm sounds that match the animation that will show up on the display. There is also a Sleep Mode which will dim the lights and will turn off the mic so that everyone can really rest. The voice assistant when active can set reminders, play music, tell stories, and other tasks that don’t need a screen for your kids. It seems like an interesting device to have if you still want technology to help you out but not necessarily your smartphone or tablet.

The post Minimalist alarm clock and speaker can help kids manage time without screens first appeared on Yanko Design.