Human came to Maestro with an uncompromising vision for a new way to experience audio. Their view of the future could only succeed if miniaturized electronics, a sophisticated user interface, and a revolutionary ergonomic concept could be delivered invisibly to the user.

My main role as one of the four Maestro PD Engineers working on this project was owning the Hook’s system architecture and integration. The Human Headphones Hook, which is the banana-shaped part that anchors behind the user’s ear, consists of a rigid enclosure and an ergonomic soft rubber part for increased comfort. This subsystem houses the battery, the charging contacts, magnets, and FPC, as well as the clasping magnets for the left and right headphones.

Working in the simplest possible medium to validate the fundamental principles that will define a successful solution. Clamping torque, range of motion, and overall product weight were defined with primitive models steering the process.

Rigorous iteration on the success criteria allowed our team to identify an optimized system architecture. In-house prototyping and sophisticated CAD modeling enabled this process of rapid iteration.

Ready for Launch…

Over a period of 9 months, Maestro worked as an extension of the internal team at Human. Our work concluded at a DVT-ready product with tooled samples in hand to support extensive user trials, reliability testing, and additional fundraising activities.