Vocal Smoke Detector Product Concept
A student project developed for an introductory product design course. The requirements were to develop a “vocal smoke detector” targeted towards young demographics. The project is based upon the premise, that children are more likely to wake up to familiar voices, as opposed to the traditional smoke alarm tone. My project is a smart home smoke detector targeted to adolescents; 13-18 years old.
The design was primarily influenced by the specific objectives for the project and the product design development process. This process took us from research to sketching, to modeling, to client presentation; developing both hand and digital visualizations of our product; and to build upon our existing communication design skill-sets in laying out and documenting our process.
So my overall style and approach to this design comes from the research, time and exploration, I invested into the project.
I began this project as I would any other, with preliminary research. I knew from the start, I would be designing what would essentially be an enclosure for the smoke detector, rather than a fully working product, as this is more of a concept piece. Even still, I researched the breakdown, function and different types of alarm systems, so that I would understand how they are made and how I can make my product concept more realistic.
Next, as per the requirements, I made multiple mood-boards of reference images, that would help to inspire my product. I took these references and did multiple rounds of sketches and drafts, until I arrived at a design, I was happy with.
I took this final draft, annotated with dimensions to my university’s plastics lab, and made multiple blue-foam models to get a better understanding of the products potential size and form. From this point, I began modelling my final product in Autodesk’s Fusion 360 Program. I went through multiple design iterations and sizes until, I found one that fit the bill.
Along with our product, we were required to create three wall panels and a process booklet to hold all our work. I used Adobe InDesign and Illustrator to help create the layout of this booklet and the wall panels. 3D Renderings found on these panels came from Adobe Dimension, Fusion 360’s renderer and SimLab Composer 9.
In the meantime, I also took my model and sliced it with Cura for 3D Printing, as I own a printer. I printed all the parts at half-scale and assembled them with small lock-springs, to display one of the products functions.
Once completed, the project was delivered to my course-room and mounted onto the wall, with the works of my classmates.
We were required to present the work, to the class but due to time conflicts with a flight out of country, I was not able to do so. The work and the booklet is able to speak for itself; from what I’m told the class had a positive reaction to the work. My professor awarded me a fair grade for the work and provided useful feedback which is great.
I learned a great deal from the development of this project, as it is only my second proper product design, that I’ve made thus far. I’m slowly getting better at Fusion 360 and I intend to develop more projects like this in the future.
The presentation files and the booklet explain, in depth my thought process for the development of the project, so please feel free to follow along as you look at each image.
