London, United Kingdom
Designed by creative technologist Jude Pullen on commission by DesignSpark and Electrocomponents Plc., RadioGlobe is an open-source product that began life in DesignSpark’s electronic engineering community.
The DIY kit is 3D printed, soldered, and assembled—to build a physical globe, which can be rotated to locate any city—and play any of 2000+ radio stations.
This unique physical interface was created during the 2020 Covid lockdown, in Pullen’s 2x2m shed, in 4 weeks—to inspire creative discovery of news, music and debate when individuals around the world were facing isolation within the confines of the four walls.
The project has been built and improved upon by enthusiasts around the world.
Powered by a Raspberry Pi computer, the RadioGlobe as it is known, is constructed from 3D printed parts, and around $150 worth of components: Many of which are familiar such as LEDs and LCD Screens, but the critical components are the two rotary encoders.
These are no bigger than a boiled sweet, and yet are capable of detecting rotary change as small as 0.3 degrees—or to put it another way, about 33 miles.
Even when located in a City, one can still ‘scroll’ through stations using the jog-wheel in the control panel, offering even more nuanced exploration of the 2000+ stations.
Unlike many products which are deemed “complete” once on sale, RadioGlobe is a rare example of a highly detailed product that is designed to evolve and change.
Not only has the GitHub (for Software) had updates to improve the code, as well as offers to include new ‘plug-ins’ such as a Shazam button (to use Artificial Intelligence to recognize a given song), the opensource publication of the 3D CAD models has already been modified by users to include different speaker configurations, and for other interface layouts.
With open-source the pride is not always the “perfection,” but the “possibility” that it inspires in others to go beyond the first iteration.
Arguably, a subtle detail, but provocative for anyone wanting to consider inherent bias in everyday things.
Inspiration for the project was a mix of personal and topical inputs:
Firstly, Pullen’s mixed-race heritage and cross-cultural experiences formed a perspective around exposure to other cultures. RadioGlobe facilitates curiosity.
Secondly, Jude changed the globe’s angle from 23.5 to 30 degrees—both physically and metaphorically shifting our perspective, ensuring that the Southern hemisphere is equally represented to one’s natural eyeline when exploring.
Like many people, Pullen has family and friends who have suffered from depression and anxiety, and he observed that many reports were highlighting significant increases in such conditions during lockdown: 3/5 adults reported that they have felt lonely (2020 Cigna US loneliness index), not helped by a 65% drop in international tourism during the first half of 2020 (UNWTO).
Many people know the mood-enhancing power of music and exploration —and radio experts Pure revealed 48% of people turn to audio technology to combat loneliness.
Spurred on by these insights, Jude was interested in creating a conceptual product that would sit harmoniously in our living space, and feel inviting, yet not intrusive.
Aside from feedback that it was “not another App,” RadioGlobe is still technically accomplished— incorporating two cutting-edge components; absolute rotary encoders, to map the earth into over 1million quadrants—these are registered to the stations via a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, and housed in a 3D-printed enclosure.
Although Jude’s 4-year-old son has proven that the UX is “childs-play,” more astonishingly the project was built by a 75-year-old across the Atlantic: “This is the most fun I have had in a long time”…”I am so enjoying listening to all the Music and Talk around the world! I’ve lived and worked all around [the globe], so I can go back and listen to some of these radio stations [in Europe, Africa, South America]—it’s wonderful stuff… and I thank Jude so much for that!” said Chuck in Jefferson, Georgia.
With high praise in technical communities from “Interesting Engineering to Gizmodo,” RadioGlobe has also been widely shared across platforms from Reddit (100k upvotes; 1k+ comments) to TikTok (400k views; 800+ comments)—with hundreds of discourse dedicated to new ideas, and improvements on the speculative design.
For Pullen, this is the real thrill of creating open-source Tech-Art.
Project: RadioGlobe
Designers: Jude Pullen
Design Team: Don Robson, Pete Milne, Pete Wood, Joydipto Choudhuri, and Robbie Dunion
Manufacturers: DesignSpark and Electrocomponents Plc.