AMAZON ALEXA VORONOI SCULPTURES

Overview

The Amazon Alexa Voronoi Sculpture is a project that combines the study of materials and digital fabrication with the expression of personal style and aesthetics.

The final product offers two options for an Amazon Alexa Voronoi Sculpture. The first being a softer, more organic form while the other is a sharper, more angular pattern. Both are made out of white cast acrylic to provide a stark contrast to the black body of the Amazon Alexa.

Problem Statement

Every year smart speakers are becoming more popular and taking up a larger share of the market. Smart speaker sales tripled in 2017 with over 25 million models being sold. Similar to the smartphone market, there is a huge opportunity to provide customization and accessories for this growing market. However, unlike, the smartphone market, accessories for smart speakers don't need to be designed to provide any protection. They can be designed and developed to maximize the form of the speaker and help to transition the speaker to be a focal point in any home.

Research

Current products on the market are not only lacking in originality (some are simply fabric sleeves to offer different colors), but they also don’t seem to understand that smart speaker devices aren’t mobile.

After conducting interviews with Amazon Echo and Google Home users. Several key findings came were discovered.

Smart speaker users want to maximize the range of their device and often felt that these speakers were kept to the side because they were viewed as “clutter” or “didn’t match the aesthetic of the room.”

They would also often position their speakers to have a clear line of communication between them and the device to minimize that chance for a missed command but were still never placed in the center of the room. “Nothing is more frustrating when using [my smart speaker] and being interrupted with the phase ‘hmmm I didn’t quite get that’ because it is just too far away from me. I hate that?”

Based on this research a design opportunity arose and a new how might we statement was crafted:

How might we turn the smart speaker from a strictly functionalobject into a piece of art.

From this, it was determined that not only must this accessory maintain the function of the speaker, but now must change how people view the object.

Design Process

Before moving into the prototyping stages, a few design criteria had to be selected. Based on the research it was discovered that users wanted a product that would be perceived as much of an art piece and as a piece of technology. Also, the fact that most smart speaker users had some background and affinity for technology was used to inform on the design process.

Because of this a study in mathematical formulas, materials, and machining was used to inform the designs.

In terms of manufacturing, the Amazon Alexa provides a unique challenge. The object itself is a large cylinder and therefore, the design and the material selected needed to be conducive to the shape of the product. Because of this, additive manufacturing processes such as 3D printer were explored, but deemed to be too wasteful. The manufacturing process was narrowed down to subtractive methods such as a laser engraver or a CNC machine with an additional step for forming the final product. This also informed the possible materials that could be used. The materials were narrowed down to wood, acrylic, and Corian.

Ideation + Prototypes

The next step was to figure out the design of the product. Pulling from mathematical designs, the Voronoi diagram was selected. The Voronoi Diagram (or Dirichlet tessellation).

“is used to divide a plane filled with unique nodes into separate regions. The cool thing about these regions is that at any point within them, you are closer to the node they contain than any other node, and, at any point along their boundaries, you are equidistant to at least two nodes. This makes them very useful for many applications such as mapping and zoning.” (Wikipedia, Voronoi Diagrams)

Testing

Testing was separated into two phases: how to fabricate the material and how to mold the material. The bodies were designed in Fusion 360 on one flat, uniform sheet of material. Two designs, one with angular cell structure and the other with round cell radii were chosen to be laser cut. Several rounds of testing were conducted with chipboard, cardboard, and finally acrylic.

Based on the criteria, the final design was to be made from laser-cut acrylic that was then heat formed around a mold that matched the shape of an Amazon Alexa. All of this was done from a single sheet of ⅛ inch acrylic. After cutting out the pieces, they were uniformly heated and bent around a PVC pipe mold that matched the desired diameter or Amazon Alexa.

Final

The final Amazon Alexa Voronoi Sculpture is a clever product and a work of art. These sculptures are a project that combines the study of materials and digital fabrication with the expression of personal style and aesthetics.