Recently I read an article on “zombie babies”, which are mostly babies of 1-3 years old who lies in baby carriages pushed around by their parents. They are called zombie babies because they are too young to walk around, so they just lie inside carts instead, and while they are inside the cart, the babies are isolated from the outside world: their parents don’t talk to them, nor do they interact with passerby. For zombie babies, their only activated sense is visual through which they see moving images flashing in and passing their sights. We are only considering the conveniences of baby carriages but forgetting the babies’ feelings.
I think that the key to not ignoring the babies is to activate more of their senses, especially the ones they are most familiar with, the signal from their families. Therefore, I modeled an item which conveys the sound of the troller-pusher to the baby inside the cart, it uses solid media to convey sound through the “cups” on both sides and the rubber band connecting the cups. One of the cups is placed next to the pusher’s mouth and the other next to the baby’s ear. This way the baby inside the cart wouldn’t be ignored as before as their audio sense would be activated and would get more comfortable when inside the carriage.
I consider it a good design for 1, it aims for a particular group of customers who were ignored before. Newborn parents are always looking for ways to better raise their babies and this can be a good product for them to shape their babies’ personality. 2, it is considerate for the babies’ health. I am using the most traditional way of sound transmitting instead of phones which require signals, signals can be hazardous to the babies’ brains. 3, it is safe for babies. I am using thick rubber bands in the middle instead of thin strings which might strangle the babies. Rubber bands are more sustainable and safer for young children,