Using a friendly piece of technology to boost brain development in young children is the goal of the Versame Starling.
Research has proven that the number of words a child hears early in her development is a strong predictor of her future vocabulary, IQ, and emotional well-being. The Starling tracks the number of words spoken to the child and interacts with a mobile app to set goals and monitor progress.
In my role in this project I studied the many ways the product might be worn and how those methods might be applied to the design. By exploring the traditional and not-so-traditional methods of connecting objects to one another we were able to make an informed decision on the best path forward. Several of the explorations are shown below.
Although many of the proposals would have been quite functional, testing revealed the best solution was to merge the magnetic connection concept with the form of one of the bi-stable metal band concepts. This form also lent itself nicely to charging the unit.
The funding platform for the Starling was Indiegogo. The launch was an overwhelming success, having achieved full funding within 24 hours.
