The following will be a general overview and design of Speaker Hands, designed and built for the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) and the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO). The focus of the design was to simply increase the volume output level from a mobile phone while maintaining the mobility and interaction of portable devices. Numerous versions of portable speakers were investigated including a speaker jacket and speaker necklace. In the end, small commercially available speakers were sewn onto durable workman or sporting gloves to directly attach two full-range speakers to a user's hands. After testing the interaction across all three options, the speaker hands were significantly more flexible and interesting to play with–presumably because of the close proximity of the sound source to the music controller (mobile phone). Moreover, added clothing, physical strain, and excessive cabling hindered the speaker jacket and necklace design. See images below for final design and prototypes.
Speaker Hands
Speaker Necklace
Speaker Jacket
