NEXT THING CO. - VODER
Next Thing Co. was an anti-tech tech company shaking up the outer cuts of Silicon Valley. They produced tools for DIY makers and coders that were both powerful and accessible. The bulk of those tools were comprised of modular circuit boards and chips to get crafty maker/coder/hackers up and running on projects. After the sustained buzz around NTC’s proven maker tools, Voder was slated as a showcase product—it was a consumer product powered by hardware guts of NTC’s core catalog of punk rock circuitry.
The device is a purely voice-activated automobile command center. Designed with quirky NTC types in mind, Voder is a dashboard set-top box adapted to the early 90s-to-00s cars that they tend to drive. Connectivity to a car’s ECU and audio system enabled Voder to enable a driver with voice command and feedback. Changing playlists, checking engine diagnostics, and making calls all hands and eye-free was enabled with this $50 device. The industrial design therefore had to be versatile, simple, and low costing. The round edges, and “slow” curves flow into the similar form factors prevalent in dashboards of that era.
Much attention was placed on the contour of the top surface to reduce dangerous and annoying glare towards the driver and passengers as well as glare shooting backwards onto the windshield that could be blinding.
PROTOTYPING
Working with the crafty group at NTC ensured that prototyping got top priority. This made for access to an arsenal of in-house prototyping tools including 3D printers, a giant laser cutter, and several power and hand tools. Needless to say, it was quite a treat for me making prototypes from rough to refined with this team.
