Blendie
Someone at MIT's Media Lab came up with a blender that is voice activated. You control the speed of the blender with the pitch of your voice.
People induce the blender to spin by sounding the sounds of its motor in action. A person may growl low pitch blender-like sounds to get it to spin slow (Blendie pitch and power matches the person) and the person can growl blender-style at higher pitches to speed up Blendie. The experience for the participant is to speak the language of the machine and thus to more deeply understand and connect with the machine. The action may also bring about personal revelations in the participant. The participant empathizes with Blendie and in this new approach to a domestic appliance, a conscious and personally meaningful relationship is facilitated.
Via Cool Hunting at Blendie
Read More in: Small Appliances
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Posted by Maya Bazar at March 3, 2006 8:46 AM
OK, that's just plain stupid. It's one thing to anthropomorphize animals but doing it to kitchen appliances makes no sense. Besides, can you imagine standing there humming and growling?
Ikea had the right idea in one of their ads. It shows someone throwing away an old lamp. As the lamp lays on the sidewalk on a cold rainy night, sad music plays. Then a voice says, "Do you feel sorry for this little lamp? That's because you're crazy! Go to Ikea and get a new one." Now that's a great commercial.
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