Current earphone designs follow a universal approach, which might fit average body shapes comfortably but lead to discomfort for others. Leveraging technologies like AI, simulations, and digital models enables efficient creation of personalized products at scale (Sony, 2018). With the development of new AM techniques, printing options are becoming faster and the materials more versatile. Techniques for printing flexible materials, such as silicones and printing multiple materials within the same print (Rossing et al., 2020), allow a larger scale of design properties, increasing the possibilities for which products will be fit for mass customisation.
When people customise or personalise a product, they intensify their emotional connections to the product (Mugge et al., 2009). Involving customers in the creation of their earphones leads them to be more emotionally invested in the product.
To create a personalised product, it is essential to obtain data of the individual body part as everyone is unique. For this project, the customer should be able to scan their ears by themselves at home. To evaluate which scanning methods best represent the shape of the ear while being easy to use, the 3D scanning methods and the physical representations of those scans are validated. Through tests it is determined that the Truedepth scanner provides the best results for the envisioned use case of scanning at home.
Customers perform multiple activities per day with which they would prefer to use their earphone. By designing for extreme use cases (dancing with lots of head movements and long consecutive use of the earphones), the design is expected to perform well in other use cases as well.
Since earphone tips provide the main point of retention in the ear, they typically are the cause of irritation among users. To increase the level of comfort, the pressure should be equally distributed to parts of the concha.
The concept Seal is based on the Truedepth scan data of the concha. Seal distributes the retention force across the concha, rather than providing retention in the auditory canal. The part that fits in the cymba concha is made of flexible material, providing a softer touch and therefore more comfort. The seal creates a sealing effect at the entrance of the auditor canal using a flexible collar. Therefore, it does not need to enter the auditory canal which means that its audio canal can remain short. The advantage of this is that the seal fabricates as little extra geometry as possible.
The prototypes show that it is possible to design earphones based on scanned data that are gathered by a smartphone or tablet. This provides the customer with new listening experiences. However, the success of the concept partly depends on the availability and the quality of scanners in smartphones in the future.