Introduction

Ashore is an ocean-friendly audio speaker that uses recycled 3D nylon printing wire and recycled PET environmentally-friendly yarn made from marine waste recovered from the sea. With a simple touch operation, users can listen to the unique sound of the Taiwan coastlines anytime and anywhere. Ashore is designed to offer an extraordinary listening experience while increasing work efficiency and improving sleep quality. Ashore brings you visual, auditory, and tactile enjoyment every moment, subverting your imagination of marine debris.

Background Research

The frequency of ocean waves is around 12 Hz, which is exactly the same as the frequency of human EEG waves when in a calm status (alpha waves). In particular, the sound of ocean waves features regularity, and recent research has proved that such a feature could block sudden sounds, increase work efficiency and improve sleep quality. Thus, we worked on bringing the sound of waves to everyday life and wanted the product to be eco-friendly and provide a focus on marine conservation: About 500 billion PET bottles and 640 thousand tons of fishing gear are discarded each year globally, and a large part of it ends up in the ocean. Ashore is composed of 3D printing filament and environmentally friendly yarn made from marine debris containing thermoplastic components.

Mechanism Overview

The speaker is run by a Raspberry Pi 3, a touch-sensing panel, and an activation trigger. When activated, a curved surface would rise and show the control panel. Not only is the speaker able to live-stream the ocean waves, but it is also capable of playing music from your Bluetooth device. When playing, the outside layer slowly rotates while the decorating lights gently brighten and dim as a breathing light, mimicking the lighting characteristics of the sea waves. An animated version of the mechanism is presented in the video below.