MIRAI SPEAKER series
Product Design
Consumer Audio
Consumer Audio
A speaker series that brings television dialogue back into shared family time.
The MIRAI SPEAKER series was developed with a focus on making speech—especially dialogue on television—easier to hear. MIRAI SPEAKER↗’s proprietary “Curved Sound” technology takes a different approach from conventional audio systems that prioritize power or fidelity. It began with a simple aim: to deliver conversation and television dialogue to the listener more clearly and naturally.
To make this proprietary technology work as a product for everyday home use, we considered not only how the sound travels, but also how the speaker sits in a living space, how easily it can be operated, how neatly it fits around a television, and how realistically it can be manufactured at scale. As a product used every day by a wide range of people, including older adults, its technical character had to be expressed without compromising usability or its presence in the home.
Design Focus Across the Series
Across the MIRAI SPEAKER series, we examined the relationship between operation, presence, and structure in order to translate its proprietary acoustic technology into an everyday object for the home. It had to be intuitive to use, sit naturally around a television, and remain feasible as a product within acoustic and manufacturing constraints. Each model adjusts this balance according to how it is used, its price point, and its installation environment.
How could the spread and overlap of sound be expressed through the product’s form? We visualized how waves produced by Curved Sound move through space, then traced back from those waves to the form of the device that generates them.
Development Across the Models
MIRAI SPEAKER Stereo
Form and Environment
As the first stereo model in the series, MIRAI SPEAKER Stereo was developed around a clear silhouette that could embody the company’s proprietary Curved Sound technology. A single broad sheet of perforated metal follows and connects the arcs of the two independent speaker units across the front, with the controls and display aligned to the same curve.
While allowing the acoustic technology to register in the product’s form, front-facing details were kept to a minimum so the speaker could sit naturally around a television. Only the volume control—the element users touch most often—was placed on the front, balancing intuitive operation with a quiet presence that recedes into the viewing environment.
MIRAI SPEAKER Mini
Continuity from the Previous Model
MIRAI SPEAKER Mini was developed as the successor to the previous Home ↗ model, retaining its functions and acoustic characteristics while making it easier to use as an everyday home speaker. Visual cues established in earlier models to evoke Curved Sound were carried forward and reinterpreted through a front panel shared with Stereo.
This preserves continuity with the previous generation while giving Mini its own identity within the series. Considering everyday movement, placement, and operation around the home, the form was designed to feel natural as a compact object.
As the conditions of each model evolve, the form and structure are updated accordingly, while the series continues to develop a shared visual language for Curved Sound.
Credit
| Client | MIRAI SPEAKER Co., Ltd.↗ |
| Year | 2024 |
| Design | Yuichiro Tani (UO) / Yu Matsuda (UO) |
| Engineering | MIRAI SPEAKER Co., Ltd.↗ |
| Animation | Taro Hirose (UO) |
