Primary Research

Parkinson’s

A condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged over years due to decreasing amount of dopamine.

10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s with 60,000 people are diagnosed per year.

1 in 37 of people in UK will be diagnosed with Parkinson’ s in a lifetime.

89% of people of PD develop soft voice condition over lifetime.

There are four stages to voice condition levels and it is the last 3 to 4 stage when a person needs a voice amplifier. That is 2 million people.

1. How The Voice Amplifier Project Started

The inspiration came from my own experience of my grandfather having Parkinson’s with soft voice condition. It was difficult to hear him, especially when we had conversations over the phone due to living in different countries. In 2017, I have met a lady who had a similar situation. Seeing the difficulties of communicating with her loved ones, being fixes onto a veil of impaired image which affects everyday social interactions, along with the poor design and function of existing voice amplifier devices made me want to redesign a voice amplifier.

Voice Recording

During the early stage of the project, C.C. was invited to the sound studio. Her voice was recorded and projected to test if simply raising the volume makes a difference in audibility of her speaking.

Conversation With C.C.

She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2011.

She loves meeting people and staying active.

She has a very soft and quiet voice.

Her son lives in United States and she has difficult time talking through Skype.

In loud environment, you have to be 5cm from her to hear her voice closely.

She says her voice used to have a character.

C.C’s original voice level. Voice with mic adjustment.

My volume to compare. Interface used to measure voices.

2.

Parkinson’s

Users

It is primarily focused on a person who is diagnosed with Parkinson's who has soft voice conditions and limited dexterity. Ultimately, users will extend to those with voice problems or those who need to take a rest, making it inclusive.

Many emphasis has been made on physical conditions, such as tremor in the Parkinson’s community, but not many focus has been made on voice, something that is not tangible and has not sought to be noticed as a problem. Below illustrates how user suffers in her daily live by having soft voice condition.

Everyone Has A Lifestyle

Losing a voice greatly affects a person’s lives. It becomes difficult to have a casual conversation with someone, express one’s emotion, and clearly express your opinion. From joking around, discussing work and calling someone from a distance becomes a desire rather than a give right.

3. Problem Identification/ Observation

If people desire so much for their soft voice to be louder, why aren’t they using a voice amplifier?

Conventional voice amplifiers are not designed in consideration for people with Parkinson’s or for those whose device needs to be integrated into everyday lifestyle. The form language of the device implies a medical device, portraying user as a disabled person, which removes a person’s dignity and personality. Many will not use the product and instead choose to have difficulties in speaking.

1. Conventional amplifiers are bulky, and wires get in the way, which is extremely difficult for Parkinson’s users with limited dexterity to wear.

2. People don’t want to use current voice amplifiers because the device creates stereotype of disability to the user through recognizable form that reflects handicap. Also, the robotic sound worsens the stigma.

3. A proposition is to clearly emphasis that functional solution cannot solve the issue of the problem alone; Design needs to be solved by both treating medical condition and by giving attention on one’s desire and emotional state.

4. Aim is to integrate voice amplifier into seamless auxiliary accessory that compliments and fits into the context of user’s lifestyle and everyday use.

Goal

Design a voice amplifier that can encourage a better conversation and tackle the stigma associated with current voice amplifier.

Criteria

Be Inclusive

Break Stereotype

Easy To Use

Integrates Well in Lifestyle

Needs To be Portable

4. Design Strategy

Inspiration

Product that can characterize a person.

Does not interfere from expressing who one is.

Visual Cues To Consider

/ Be conscious of ethics.

/ Cultural implication.

/ Make appearance that is socially acceptable.

/ Understand the difference between fashion, medical, and technology.

Idea Iterations

First iteration was to brainstorm with the potential user through mockup accessories. Through these objects, questions were asked to PD users of what they envision the voice amplifier to be like. They wished the device to be an accessory. Accessories ranged from ear piece, hair piece, necklace, broach to glasses.

Through conversations, a point was learnt that although small accessories are nice and discreet, it is difficult for PD users to handle, who have tremors or stiff muscles. Objects were narrowed down to necklace and glasses. Ultimately, necklace was eliminated after a technical research showed the contact mic on neck position cannot pick up the voice very well.

5. Technical Tests

When I tried on the throat mic, ( one of conventional voice amplifiers available for PD users), I found out that it cannot capture my pronunciations correctly and I, who relatively have a healthy throat condition, sounded muffled. This infuriated me because I didn’t understand why products that do not work would be the only few products that is available to the users who really need their voices to be heard.

Throat microphone was analyzed to study what component was used as a microphone and piezo was found inside.

Piezo is a component that picks up mechanical stress or vibration, creating energy from pressure. It is used as a contact microphone to capture voice by picking up the physical vibration of the voice.

As an experiment, piezo was placed around different parts of the face to see if picking up the voice could be improved.

Studies showed that the piezo placed on the nasal bone captures the voice most accurately.

Because the mic needs to be placed on the nasal bone, it is best to transfigure voice amplifier into wearable glasses.

Voices were recorded by connecting piezo to the sound mixer, which acts as an interface that converts the analog sound wave into digital for the software to record the sound.

Piezo was used as the mic rather than regular mic, because it acts as a bone conduction, which only captures the wearer’s voice and eliminates background noise. This gives advantage in picking up soft voice or whisper.