‘Bose’ To Cultivate Future Engineers Through Toy Speakers

With the current competition to produce the next generation of programmers by companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft, it’s almost jarring for another company to go in another direction and focus on hardware instead. This is exactly what “Bose” is doing with what they are calling the “Speaker Cube.” It’s essentially a toy speaker aimed at kids to teach them how to build their own Bluetooth speaker and how modern audio technology works in general.

The obsession with software and coding in the modern age has caused a steep imbalance in terms of hardware innovation. The focus on the proliferation of apps and indie video games is a good example of the stark difference in how much more popular software and coding has become compared to hardware, Fast Company reports.

This is one of the reasons why “Bose” is launching their own learning product, according to Bose head of product innovation, Joe Titlow.

"It's the harsh reality that the world is being eaten by software. But at the end of the day, we live in the real world," he said. “We're just a huge company of engineers who get all geeked up about how stuff works. So we said, why don't we distill that experience down to something that we could give to a child?"

The company seems to have reached a viable answer since building the speaker isn’t all that complicated, even for kids, according to Gizmag. The components do not need any special equipment or tools to build, and the instructions on how to put them together are provided as an “iOS” app.

The instructions will have brief explanations regarding the relationship of the different components, magnets, and frequencies when it comes to producing sound as well, so this isn’t like a lego set where kids are expected to just build the thing. For curious minds, the app also delves deeper into the topic of frequencies and sound waves, which “Bose” is hoping will hook children and make them interested in hardware.