Using a friendly piece of technology to boost brain development in young children is the goal of the Versame Starling.
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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.
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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.
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The funding platform for the Starling was Indiegogo. The launch was an overwhelming success, having achieved full funding within 24 hours.
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