Referee is a smart artifact that works as a conversation monitor, helping reclaim your voice, especially when dealing with a chronic interrupter. Through voice recognition technology that detects interrupting voices and signal when these interruptions happen to nudge behavior in a comical way, giving power and time back to the interrupted.
HOW IT WORKS
First users register their voice, the device stores their dominant frequencies and create a voiceprint to refer back to. Users would then turn Referee on before starting a conversation, and it will keep track of any interruptions. As soon as it detects an interruption from the other side, a mini air pump will start inflating a balloon-like sphere until the interrupter stops talking, once the interruption stops the balloon will start deflating.
First users register their voice, the device stores their dominant frequencies and create a voiceprint to refer back to. Users would then turn Referee on before starting a conversation, and it will keep track of any interruptions. As soon as it detects an interruption from the other side, a mini air pump will start inflating a balloon-like sphere until the interrupter stops talking, once the interruption stops the balloon will start deflating.
During research, we learned that the inability to change this behavior is due to a lack of awareness when it happens, as it is a decision the interrupter makes subconsciously. So we developed a physical interaction accompanied by a visual cue that could help the interrupters aware when they of their behavior.
In collaboration with Phuong Anh Nguyen
