Florian Puech

Iago

Students who cannot decipher the subtle differences between similar sounds in a foreign language are victims of what is called 'phonological deafness'. Since they cannot reproduce what they cannot hear, their learning abilities are severely impacted.

Intensive research into how the brain is involved in the process of producing speech led me to the key principle of iago. Through different experiments I studied the impact of altered auditory feedback on pronunciation, and I compared the vowel sets of a bilingual person with those of a learner in order to develop an automatic way of spotting pronunciation errors.

iago changes the learners  perception of their own voice while they speak in order to help them correct pronunciation mistakes. By exaggerating the differences between what they are saying and what they should say, it leads the students to subconsciously change their pronunciation. In parallel, iago offers a new way of visualising voices that highlights those differences and empowers students to master pronunciation on their own.

Amoeba (group project)

With increasing digital interactions, we are constantly bombarded with vast amounts of data. Organising all this data is hard, even though we are already processing it unconsciously.

Amoeba is the result of an experimental project that was aimed at finding new ways of navigating through large blocks of digital data. It was recently featured on Dezeen, CNET, Gizmodo, SkyNews and many other design and technology blogs across the globe.

Amoeba records changes in three bio-parameters - breathing rate, pupil size and skin conductance - to analyse interest levels while we browse through content and presents it through a simple, interactive interface.