EMO Mic - 通过纸杯电话传递留守儿童情绪

EMO Mic

Convey children's emotions through the cup phone

Key words: Educate / Accompany / Left behind children / Emotional visualization / Communicate

“EMO Mic”，是针对留守儿童家庭设计的一个充满童趣的纸杯电话装置。在调研中我发现留守儿童的父母常选择打电话这种方式进行沟通和陪伴孩子，但事实上这不一定真的陪伴到了孩子。经济学家薛兆丰教授提出了“有效沟通”概念：陪着不等于陪伴。因为在通话过程中父母会自然而言、不自知地成为指挥者，让本温馨的来电变得无趣与反感。于是我设计了一套纸杯电话交互装置以及一套用户体验流程，实现传递孩子通话时的情绪给父母，借助语音识别情绪技术，将情绪转化为不同颜色，再通过纸杯电话进行传达，我的装置致力于改善父母与儿童间的对话问题，从而让家长们都能关注到对话方式对孩子的心理影响，真正地陪伴电话另一头的孩子们。

“EMO Mic”, is a child-friendly cup phone device designed for families with left-behind children. In my research, I find that parents of left-behind children often choose to call their children to communicate and spend time with them, but it does not necessarily mean real company for their children. Professor Xue Zhaofeng, an economist, has proposed the concept of “effective communication” that being there is not the same as the company. It’s because parents naturally and unknowingly become the ones in charge during the phone call, making an otherwise warm call uninteresting and offensive. Therefore, I design the cup-phone interactive device and a user experience process to convey the emotions of the child on the phone to the parents, using the technology of emotion recognition by voice to translate emotions into different colors, and then communicate them through the cup phone. Thus, parents can focus on the psychological impact of the conversation style on their children and accompany their children through phones.

EMO Mic 是一款通过情绪可视化儿童端情绪，帮助解决留守儿童与父母间可能存在的沟通问题的纸杯电话。

EMO Mic is a paper cup phone that visualizes children's emotions and helps solve possible communication problems between left-behind children and their parents.

父母常常认为陪着就是陪伴，电话打过就是关心到位了，却疏忽了沟通应该是双向的，而并非单纯的父母单方面输出。

➊痛点: 父母只会在有事时才会打电话。
-通过“语音信箱”模块传递孩子希望沟通的想法

➋痛点: 打电话过程中，自然而言，不自知地变成指挥者。
-利用语音识别将声音信息转换成数字信息，最后将数字信息转换成不同的颜色。热情的情绪会呈现出明亮的暖色，而冷漠则是暗淡的冷色。这样，孩子的情绪就可以实时传输给家长，让家长在通话过程中得到及时的反馈，更好地关注孩子的情绪，及时做出调整。

➌痛点: 父母：我只要给钱当好“后勤部长”就行。
-APP端给予指导、纠正错误观念，提供建议

Parents think that being there is companion, that a phone call is a good idea.
They neglect that communication should be a two-way activity, not just a parental output.

➊ Parents only call when they have something to do.
- Through the "Voice Mailbox" module, convey the ideas that children want to communicate

➋ Naturally, parents become the one in charge during the phone call.
- Using speech recognition to convert the sound information into digital information, and finally the digital information into different colors. Passionate emotions will show a bright warm color, while apathy is a dim cool color. In this way, children's emotions can be transmitted to parents in real time, so that parents can get timely feedback, pay better attention to their children's emotions, and make timely adjustments during the call.

➌ Parents thought it was enough to give their children money.
- The APP side gives parents guidance, corrects misconceptions, and provides suggestions

受到我们小时候玩的纸杯电话游戏的启发，它由两杯纸和一根绳子组成。通过杯子之间的绳索连接，我们可以听到来自另一个杯子的声音，这是一种有趣的交流方式。纸杯电话解决了物理距离，EMO Mic解决的是心理距离。

Inspired by the cup phone game we played as kids, it consists of two paper cups and a piece of string. Through the rope connection between the cups, we can hear the voice from another cup, which is an interesting way of communication. The paper cup phone solves the physical distance, while the EMO Mic solves the psychological distance.