Jukebox
The idea behind this project was to give the user a way to play music in a way that feels modern and clean while also not feeling overly digitized. The jukebox stores over 13 gigabytes of songs and playlists.
The way you queue up the next song or pull up a playlist is by scanning an RFID card that has been made to resemble a cassette tape. An OLED screen was incorporated to show the name and artist of the current song playing. To make the product feel more interactive animated eyes react to the music playing (see demo below).
Song selection, pausing, and volume controls are all done with the use of a rotary encoder. The enclosure was specifically designed around the selected speaker driver for maximum audio quality and volume.
Overall product concept · user interaction · enclosure and mechanical packaging · electronics integration · internal layout · fabrication · finished appearance · performance based design
Expressive Interface
Custom animated eyes give the jukebox a visible personality, responding to user interactions and playback states throughout the experience.
General Personality
Idle reactions that establish the jukebox’s (Juke's) character. The demo above loops through all possible reactions. On the actual product his expressions are much less frequent. The goal was to make the jukebox feel more alive and interactive for the user. Not just something that sits on their desk until it is needed.
Song Select
When a playlist card is scanned the track list appears on the screen and songs can be selected using the knob.
Music Starts
Juke gets excited when a song is selected and begins playing.
Music Paused
Juke gets sad when the music is paused. Starting the song again will cheer him up.
Volume Down
Juke gets suspicious when the volume is lowered. Why would you turn down his music?