There are constant privacy concerns about smart speakers and smart displays that are always listening to you, but this concept actually has good reason for it.
Speakers and screens that act as the hub of our smart home are becoming more and more popular these days. From Amazon to Google and even Apple, there is no shortage of companies with products that are always ready to listen to your voice or even see your face. These scenarios may seem a little uncomfortable and almost intimidating to some people, but a branding agency is trying to recast these techniques in a more positive light by giving smart assistants a friendlier face, almost literally too.
Designer: Recipe Design
Soove doesn’t look like a typical smart speaker apart from its conical shape and the usual use of fabric that wraps around the product. It has a strange collar-like ring near the top, in fact a vocal cone that makes it more sensitive to every vocal nuance around it. However, the most attractive part of the design is the black glass ball on the top and the eyes that seem to be looking at you and expressing some emotions by changing the shape of the eyes.
This gives Soove a more friendly face compared to smart speakers with practical uses and smart display designs. He disarms and relaxes you, and sounds like a friend who’s ready to give you a listening ear on your stressful day. This is exactly the kind of emotion their designers want to evoke because a smart speaker cares more about your well-being than turning the lights on or off.
In addition to listening for audio cues, Soove uses face tracking to learn about a person’s feelings through facial expressions as well as physical states. It can also take into account data from other smart devices such as wearables or smart devices. Soove will then adjust the home’s lighting, temperature or music to create a more pleasant atmosphere or recommend the owner take a nap or get some fresh air.
Rather than issuing a blanket condemnation of face-tracking technologies, Recipe Design wants to show how well they can be put to good use, too. The designer says so SOOVE aims to change the meaning of current face tracking technology by recasting it as a positive enabler that goes beyond monitoring and security. By reformulating existing domestic and commercial monitoring technology, there is the potential to disrupt home monitoring and create an innovative new class designed to influence and direct sensory cues around the smart home to improve our sleep behaviors.”
