Vibrating Haptic Suits Give Deaf People a New Way To Feel Live Music (npr.org) 19
Daniel Belquer, the "Chief Vibrational Officer" of Music: Not Impossible, developed a haptic suit with vibrating plates to enhance the live music experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. The suit, showcased at an event called "Silent Disco: An Evening of Access Magic" at Lincoln Center, provided unique textures and sensations corresponding to the music, creating an inclusive environment for all attendees, regardless of hearing ability. NPR reports: His team started by strapping vibrating cell phone motors to bodies, but that didn't quite work. The vibrations were all the same. Eventually, they worked with engineers at the electronic components company Avnet to develop a light haptic suit with a total of 24 actuators, or vibrating plates. There's 20 of them studded on a vest that fits tightly around the body like a hiking backpack, plus an actuator that straps onto each wrist and ankle. When you wear the suit, it's surprising how much texture the sensations have. It can feel like raindrops on your shoulders, a tickle across the ribs, a thump against the lower back. It doesn't replicate the music -- it's not as simple as regular taps to the beat. It plays waves of sensation on your skin in a way that's complementary to the music.
A recent event at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts called "Silent Disco: An Evening of Access Magic" showcased the suit's potential. Seventy-five of them were lined up on racks at a party meant to be accessible to all. Anyone could borrow one, whether they were hearing, hard of hearing or deaf, and the line to try them out snaked around the giant disco ball that had been hung over Lincoln Center's iconic fountain. The vibrations are mixed by a haptic DJ who controls the location, frequency and intensity of feeling across the suits, just as a music DJ mixes sounds in an artful way.
A recent event at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts called "Silent Disco: An Evening of Access Magic" showcased the suit's potential. Seventy-five of them were lined up on racks at a party meant to be accessible to all. Anyone could borrow one, whether they were hearing, hard of hearing or deaf, and the line to try them out snaked around the giant disco ball that had been hung over Lincoln Center's iconic fountain. The vibrations are mixed by a haptic DJ who controls the location, frequency and intensity of feeling across the suits, just as a music DJ mixes sounds in an artful way.
Re: Chief Vibrational Officer, indeed (Score:2)
Go To A Cannibal Corpse Show (Score:2)
You will feel the music. No haptic devices necessary.
fun stuff! (Score:3)
yes it's going to be awesome for hearing impaired party-people to use this stuff... it's also going to be a blast for everyone else.
the inclusivity will be that as a hearing-impaired person you are experiencing a good chunk of the SAME experience that hearing-enabled folks are experiencing at the same time, because yeah... hearing people are greedy for sensory fun beyond hearing as well
and don't forget vision impaired people as well... a great party will have sound, lights and physical sense now... and almost everyone will be able to experience at least two of those, so almost everyone gets most of the experience (even deaf-blind folks can enjoy the physical third so there is literally something for everyone)
And not to be glib, but if you are deaf, blind, and have been badly burned so your nerves don't work, you've got bigger problems than party issues.
No, Paige! (Score:2)
Re: fun stuff! (Score:3)
It actually is pretty cool. I always wanted like a Geordie La Forge headset that would put out invisible beams, and encode the detected scene around me generated techno music. I wanted to see if I could wear it while looking long enough, if I could learn to see with my ears eventually and not look.
Power requirements (Score:3)
As engineers have discovered when it comes to "normal" sound, it takes a LOT of power to get good bass...the kind you can feel. Sure, lower-end systems brag about the level of bass they can produce, but they always fall short. You can't skimp if you want to "feel" the music.
I realize these haptic devices aren't trying to reproduce the music in general, or bass specifically. But if the goal is to make it possible to "feel" sound, it's going to have a tough time, without spending a lot of energy, and that's hard to do on a device that you strap to yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
I must be way ahead of times, because I had a subwoofer as a foot rest for two decades now.
It does indeed let's you feel the sound.
differently auditory (Score:2)
Haptic suits are not new (Score:2)
Subpac has been making them for 10 years, and they are not the only one, I think Aura was the first to make one that is commercially available at a reasonable price, in 1997.
Tactile transducers are easily available, and people have been strapping them to various parts of their bodies for a while. I have even seen a "silent disco" a bit like described in the article in 2018. The new thing here is that they explicitly target deaf people instead of just augmenting regular listening. Let's see it it leads to a
Did I miss it? (Score:2)
Cool idea, but I don't see a single quote in the article from an actual hearing impaired person. What do they think of it?
(There is exactly one quote from someone stated to have APD, which isn't what people normally think of when they think of hearing impairment.)
Just seemed rather odd for an otherwise very "pro" article.
It's not that you don't make me happy (Score:2)
Her: It's not that you don't make me happy. I just thought it would be good to plan ahead, in case I go deaf.
I'd Love to Know... (Score:1)
Casino (Score:1)
Feeling the Music (Score:1)
While this is a very interesting device, I don't see it as a direct replacement for amplified live music, loud live music vibrates the body in a way that appears to produce endorphins which can promote dancing.
Dancing subjects the body to G forces which besides getting the limbic system flowing, also appears to produce endorphins, or possibly, endocannabinoids.
In 1981 when I was a DJ at KFJC FM, I bought a record called: "Can You Hear Me? Music From The Deaf Club" [discogs.com], which was recorded at the Deaf Club [wikipedia.org] in S