Tobias Kappeler

Tobias Kappeler featured image

About

Tobias is a multidisciplinary interaction designer working at the intersection of science, technology and design to foster social innovations. His work ranges from designing products to systems and services in both the digital and physical space.

Before pursuing the MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering, Tobias completed a BA Process Design at HyperWerk in Switzerland, where he designed and developed virtual reality (VR) applications in the field of design and education.

Tobias has eight years of training and professional experience as a metal worker and construction manager, specialised in designing new, and retrofitting existing, public and private spaces.

Tobias’ multidisciplinary background combined with his highly agile design process allows him to approach design through different lenses and bridge between industries. He is passionate about developing solutions and applications that seamlessly integrate into people’s lives with meaningful interactions. Tobias enjoys working with diverse teams to tackle complex challenges.

Tobias is an audio enthusiast, music producer and DJ who is fascinated by the emotional energy sounds can release and the universal language of music that exists across cultures and societies.



Statement

Dinkum creates immersive customisable spatial audio environments which facilitate a more natural conversation in remote digital environments. 

For the last year, we were stuck on video calls in front of a screen. As we learnt to operate teleconferencing applications, these applications emphasised the visual aspect of the experience delivered through the camera feed.

Using cameras for remote conversations oftentimes does not foster a natural conversational environment, and brings about several challenges. Participants over analyse themselves and others and when seeing multiple people at once it becomes difficult to comprehend the situation. Furthermore, if people do not face the camera or leave the camera field, it seems as if they are not paying attention, and if the camera is turned off it raises the question of why. In addition, a camera feed requires more bandwidth and can increase latency, which in turn can reduce conversation fluency.  

An audio-only conversation on the other hand is more effective at conveying emotions to other people compared to an audio-visual one. Additionally, an audio-only form of communication does not have the issue of a camera feed or any privacy concerns.  

Dinkum creates a spatial audio environment that matches the participants on the call and allows users to customize the experience to their personal preferences. Additionally, users can immerse themselves in an ambisonic (full-sphere surround sound format) soundscape. 

Dinkum makes remote conversations more natural and can increase the conversation fluency as well as the participants' sense of presence and intimacy in the conversation with other participants. Choosing the room type and adjusting your distance to other participants adds an extra layer of seamless interactions to remote conversations that we know from physical ones. Dinkum allows for a new form of communication among groups and has the potential to revolutionize remote digital communication.



Dinkum - Keeping it raw and honest

Dinkum - App Overview

Dinkum - Immersive Spatial Audio Group Conversations

Use Cases

Experimentation & Development