Juuke – An RFID Music Player For Elderly And Kids

[ananords] and his girlfriend wanted to make a simple and easy to use music player for her grandmother. Music players like CD players and MP3s have gotten just a bit too difficult to handle, so they wanted to find a much simpler solution.

They conceived the idea of creating a little jukebox called Juuk, with a simple and easy to use interface. They created individual RFID cards with the artist’s photo on the front face, making it easy to select different options from the music library. Juuk has a built-in RFID reader that will recognize each RFID card and play the appropriate musical number from an SD card.

This simple interface is much more user-friendly than those awful touchscreen devices that we’re all forced to fiddle with today and also has a cool retro appeal that many of our readers are sure to appreciate. Juuk also has a pretty ergonomic interface with a big, easy-to-use knob for controlling the volume and two appropriately illuminated buttons, one green and one red, for simple stop and play options.

We love when our hacks are able to blend form with function and emphasize high usability. Check out some of our other assistive tech on the blog.

15 thoughts on “Juuke – An RFID Music Player For Elderly And Kids

  1. Nice clean design. I think the only changes I would make would be a slot for the card so you inserted the card for the music you were playing (that way it’s obvious what you’re listening to) and the traditional triangle shape for play and square for stop buttons

    1. I thought of that as well but it looks like when you scan a new card it just adds the song/artist to the queue. Not sure if there is a way to clear the queue if you make a mistake or not though.

  2. I’d like to see this idea trialed in a nursing home, it could give some extra comfort and autonomy to residents with cognitive decline who are constrained to the secure highcare areas. Another application could be “postcards” that caused ambient location type videos to play on a big screen.

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