The new era of video meetings has put webcams in the spotlight. At the same time, it has also become more quickly apparent that webcam technologies and designs didn’t really grow alongside the rest of the computing industry, seemingly stuck in the requirements and conventions of the early 2000s. But while their capabilities have indeed caught up to modern needs, their designs remain eyesores sitting on top of many monitors and laptop screens. This design concept tries to buck the trend by presenting a webcam that isn’t just useful or privacy-respecting but also carries a character of its own.
Designer: André Terchanian
There’s a principle in psychology that says that something that’s always in our vision can affect our minds in sometimes subconscious ways. That’s why sticky notes surrounding your computer monitor can be good at nagging us long after we’ve clocked out of the office, which can be a good or bad thing for your productivity. We also put things that delight and inspire us always within our field of vision, but things that irk or discomfort us can bring our mood down if we have them in our faces long enough.
Webcams are meant to be discreet and almost invisible, but except for built-in cameras in laptop monitors, the vast majority of them are perched on top of our screens, often at eye level, so there’s absolutely no way to ignore their presence. It’s not that these devices are unappealing, though some might indeed fall under that category, but many of them are plain, uninspiring, and sometimes at odds with our carefully designed desk or computer motif.
MILO is a design concept that tries to make the webcam look a little more alive and distinctive, and it does so by simply putting a ball on a stick. A spherical webcam isn’t new, but most of the existing designs often use tripods, wide mounts, or clips to stay upright. In contrast, MILO has a stem with a spherical base that can stick to the back of any monitor using an adhesive surface and suction force to stay in place. This makes MILO look almost like a robot ball or a robotic eye that’s peeking from the top of your screen.
This small design change also brings some important benefits to its functionality. For one, you only need a single USB-C cable coming out of its base, away from sight and tangles. Another is that the magnetic base can rotate in a 360-degree direction, letting the webcam swivel downward if you want to block its view and prevent accidental recording. MILO’s design is also compact and convenient to carry around, allowing you to set up your mobile office anywhere and take up video calls with a quirky-looking webcam sticking out of your laptop lid.
