would you lock your smartphone in this ASMR device for a digital detox?

ASMR device ‘muto’ locks smartphones during digital detox

Designer Seojin Lee creates muto, a concept ASMR home device that locks smartphones for a digital detox. Users first download the dedicated app to set the timer. Then, they place their smartphones into muto’s holder. Once they’re ready to let go of their artificial screens and enter into a digital detox, the machine locks the smartphone until the set time is up. While they can’t use their personal device, users can switch on the other features of muto.

These include the ASMR audio recordings and white noise coming from the gadget’s built-in speaker on the right side. Here, too, users can find the mouse, which doubles as a fidget module and volume control for the audio. Placed on the exterior of the muto is a screen that shows how much time there is before the digital detox ends. There’s even a ring animation that trickles down clockwise around the time to let users know when the digital detox is finishing.

all images courtesy of Seojin Lee

Interrupting the phone-free time is possible

Before settling on a phone-holder-styled device with a built-in speaker and mouse, Seojin Lee has designed other iterations for muto. Most of them involve transparent but locked containers. While the users can’t access their smartphones during the digital detox, they can still see their device, or even the screens as the notifications flood in. This makes stepping away from the smartphones a bit harder than the designer wants.

Because of this, she decides to enclose the phones in a holder with only a small screen to flash the time and an animated ring for the duration left. Just because the smartphones are locked into muto doesn’t mean users can’t access them in emergency times. They can interrupt the digital detox. They should set up the setting on the app before they plug their phones into the holder, so muto knows if it’s an emergency. There’s an ‘unlock’ button next to the white noise and timer controls on the surface of the ASMR device. Here, the users can pop their phones back to their hands, but the designer says only if they need to. So far, the device for digital detox is still a concept project. 

users place their smartphones into muto’s holder to start

once set, users can’t take their phones from muto

the mouse on the side acts as a fidget module and volume control

control buttons on the surface of the ASMR device

Seojin Lee creates muto, a concept ASMR home device that locks smartphones for a digital detox

there’s an animated ring to let users know how much time is left

the concept device has a USB-C port on the side for charging

project info:

name: muto

design: Seojin Lee