Have you ever imagined a lamp which can express different emotions like a pet animal? MOMO, co-designed by ZHENG Zi and YANG Qihao from the School of Software Technology and LI Jiaji from the College of Computer Science and Technology, is such a lamp that uses emotions to remind you to put down your phone. This design took home the winner award in Asia Design Prize 2020. 

MOMO can capture the attention of the user via its variations in emotion and light and “beg” the user to interact with it. The cell phone is like the treasure of MOMO. If the cell phone is removed from its base, it will become unhappy. 

One can switch on and off MOMO by giving it a pat on the head and adjust the intensity of light by swiping the finger on the top.  

The emotions of MOMO are realized by springs. The plate near its eyes is connected with the springs on the base through a connecting rod. When the cell phone is placed on the bar, the springs will shrink, thereby trigging MOMO’s cheerful emotion. MOMO is meant to sway users into putting down their cell phones occasionally. 

This novelty won the Winner Award in Asia Design Prize 2020 recently. Asia Design Prize is an international design competition, which discovers novel design concepts and ideas that will lead the future and promote them to the world.