I’ve always been interested in technology that brings zen and calmness to people’s life. So the topic of calm design and ambient design really pleases me. A week ago, I stumbled upon a new technology named Muzo. Muzo is a state of the art vibration monitoring system that will turn everything into an acoustic environment with its own speed of sound.
It blocks noises around you. There are three modes for different scenarios – Serenity, Sleep, and Secret.
Each mode adjust your sound environment for the task you are performing. I wonder how the concepts of the reading can be related to the conceptual design of this device. The paper talks about that a calm technology is one that can move between center and periphery and making the user more attuned to the information instead of of being attended to. The Muzo does this not by moving back and forth from center and periphery, instead, it creates a new environment that becomes the center of your environment and wipe out the periphery noises that you do not want to attend to. This analogy might be similar to the clear glass window in the office space, in which you have your personal zen zone but you can still get minimal information from outside of the zone. Without this device, we are forced to work in an open office, but with it, we can now build a clear window that blocks noises!
I think that’s probably why even on its kickstarter page it talks about clear window!