Idea
A radio that can go back in time. Instead of having a frequency scale, this radio has a time scale. Turn the knob back to the year you would like to revisit, and the radio will start playing content from that period. If you only want to listen to specific types of content, there is a knob for selecting that, e.g. news, radio-theatre or classical music.
Context
The radio is designed for use in the homes of elderly people, but we imagine that almost everybody could use this product – as a regular radio.
Design Process
We followed a user-centered iterative model, starting with visits to a number of elderly homes in Copenhagen. After a lot of interviews and analysis, we decided to create a product that would help people re-live and refresh their memories, instead of just re-telling what they were able to remember.
How does it work?
Technically speaking the prototype consists of an Arduino board that passes data from the four knobs on to a flash application, running on an Asus Eee 901 netbook. The physical model was built so that the Eee would fit inside, so that we could use the computer’s display as the display in the radio.