Manoj Mistry

Polycom needed to maintain leadership in the video conferencing market & embrace HD technology into their new product line. The larger exercise was to establish a new design language; the EagleEye camera module was one of several products designed. Packaging the Matsushita internal components Matsushita, a small team effort was led to create a dynamic appearance & functionality. The result; a module that compliments the Polycom HD LCD while providing untouchable performance and usability.

The initial concept design phase involved a clear understanding of the internal optics of the camera. Some of the key elements of the design were born from the required functionality like; ir static base, 180' pan module, 45' tilt. The loose sketches above illustrated a rapid ideation to capture the essence of the new HDX design language as well as package the mechanical features.

The second round of conceptual design involved building on the previous ideas and refining the key elements. The resolution of the illustrations were also increased to focus in on the areas that still needed resolving. Color is introduced in a subtle way.

Moving quickly through the design refinement by translating 4 selected ideas into 3D. The base remains unchanged for the most part but the module and pivoting system is explored in various ways.

Taking just 2 of the 3D concepts and exploring it further in pro-Engineer our M.E. was able to package the componentry into a producable shell. The 2 concepts were then further refined and rendered in Rhino 3D for presentation to the client.

The final concept direction was chosen based on its simple elegance, purity of form and reduced visual mass and complexity. The pivoting system is also more minimal. Once again the design database was engineered further to ensure production feasability and maintain design integrity. Presentation to the client was rendered in Maya to accurately represent materials, colors, finishes and graphics.

Final photography of the HDX camera module shows a satin silver metallic finish for the camera optics body and the pivoting bracket. The base features a perforated texture for venting. The front smoked acrylic panel was chosen to feature the Polycom brand insignia.