Function

To help Deaf Parents to be connected to their young children from 0 to 3 years old within the house. To let the every single sound of the child to be heard (noticed) by the parent(s) through graphic (visual) and vibration (feel). Fil’o is a concept design that comes with 3 items: (1) a watch for the parent(s) , (2) a toy for the baby (3) and a standing light to place in the room. The baby toy is a sound detector that will detect the sound from the baby, and then the information will transmit to the watch and display the information in graphic and vibration. The graphic and vibration are based on the sound detected, and at certain sound level. There are different rhythms of vibration sent out to alert the parents about the child’s condition. At night, dim light and blink light is lighted up to alert the parent with contrast of the environment, as some of the parent is more sensitive to light than vibration at night.

Inspiration

My first inspiration comes when I experience dealing with a KODA (Kids of Deaf Adult). He is a nine year old boy. As what I notice, he has a very low-self-esteem and have problems relating with other people. These root problems of the child occur during the growing years that he had with his deaf parents who are unable to meet his needs whenever he is not within their visible area. Thus, communication breakdown happens which set the purpose of the design. My second inspiration is Paul Preston, an author of a book. He explained vividly the experience that he had as CODA. In his book, he mentioned about the relationship between the deaf parents to the hearing children .His mother and father are both deaf, and it seems that he is living between sound and silence (p.21). And he quote,” The fundamental basis of communication is not sound, but connection, not only whether one is able to express, but also whether one is heard & quote”. This quotation set the direction of my design.

Development

This is my final year thesis project, carried out for more than one year, and I am still working on the prototyping. I did a lot of research through literature study, surfing the social media about the Deaf, interview with the Deaf association, Deaf volunteer, Deaf parents, KODA and CODA, to understand about the real situation of deaf people. And from there, I come out with possible solutions, and throughout testing, I gained feedback, and prototyping to understand the feasibility of the concept. Refinement after refinements. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4dRhe2_RNI