Jay Alan Zimmerman, a deaf composer and musician, used to put himself near speakers in clubs, struggling to feel the vibrations of songs he couldn’t hear.
So when he was invited to test out a new technology, a backpack, known as a haptic suit, designed for him to experience music in the form of vibrations on his skin — a drum at the ankles, a drum at the spine — he was excited.
“By translating and interpreting sign language, your brain is forced to be in more than one place at the same time,” Mr. Zimmerman, who began losing his hearing in his early 20s, said in a recent video interview.
He continued, “With the touch system, it can be transmitted directly into your body at the exact same moment, and there is a real possibility for you to feel the music in your body.”
The kind of haptic prosthesis that Mr. Zimmerman first tested, now nearly a decade ago, has recently become available to the public. The devices were available at events this summer at New York City’s Lincoln Center — including at a recent Silent Disco Night, an event where people dance while listening to music through wireless headphones — as well as at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in March , Greta Van Fleet concert in Las Vegas and performance at the Philadelphia Opera.
Developed by Philadelphia-based company Music: Not Impossible, the device consists of two ankle straps, two wrist straps, and a backpack that fastens with double straps over the rib cage. Wearing one is a bit like a full-body bear hug from a massage chair.
haptic prostheses, which are also used in virtual reality and video games, It has been around for several decades. But Music: Impossible Suits is not unique because the devices convert the individual notes of the music into specific vibrations. Other companies are also producing haptic products designed to capture the audio experiences of various events. Examples include cracking a baseball bat at a sporting event Transmitted by vibrating seatsor more everyday experiences such as the sound of a dog barking translated through a pattern of buzzing on a Wearable bracelet.
“There’s a revolution in touch technology happening right now,” said Mark D Fletcher, a researcher at Britain’s University of Southampton who studies the use of touch to support people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
He said the development of the suits benefited from recent advances in microprocessors, wireless technology, batteries and artificial intelligence, all key components in the emerging market for haptic wearable devices.
Mick Ebeling, founder of Los Angeles-based Not Impossible Labs, was first inspired to try haptic suits in 2014 when he saw a video of an event featuring a deaf DJ, with heavy bass pulsing through floor-facing speakers and people dancing barefoot. . Mr. Ebeling wanted to find a better way for the deaf to experience music.
A composer with a master’s degree in theater, Daniel Belker, soon joined forces to find a way to transmit the experience of music directly into the brain. That mission soon expanded into the goal of creating a tactile experience for music that was accessible to everyone, including people without hearing impairment, said Mr. Belker.
Mr. Belquer joined the project because he was interested in helping the deaf community, but also because he was fascinated by being a composer. He had written his master’s thesis on listening and was already producing sound with things vibrating in his own performances.
Mr. Belker worked with engineers at electronics company Avent to produce a more accurate haptic feedback system for use with musical experiences, creating a sense of touch through vibrations and wireless transmission without delay. But the prototypes were heavy and not sensitive enough to really translate the music.
“As a composer, artistic expression is important, not just the technological aspect,” he said.
He asked for feedback from members of the deaf community, including Mandy Harvey, a deaf singer-songwriter. So is Mr. Zimmerman, the composer. and sign language interpreter Amber Galloway.
Mr. Zimmerman said the first version of the device he tested was “not satisfactory”.
“Imagine there are seven or eight different cell phones attached to different parts of your body, connected by wires,” he said. “And then they all start going off at random.”
Mr. Belquer has perfected the technology, he said, so that as many as 24 instruments or vocal elements in a song can be translated to a different point in the lawsuit.
By 2018, he had created the first version of the current model, which offers three individually adjustable levels of intensity, as well as a fully customizable fit.
Amanda Landers, a 36-year-old sign language teacher at Syosset High School in Long Island who has progressive hearing loss that began around the time she was in high school, said she believes the suits are a radical way to give access to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
She first donned one of the jackets last year, during a private demonstration with Mr. Belquer and Flavia Naslausky, head of business development and strategy at Music: Not Impossible, after she came across Not Impossible Labs while researching emerging technologies for people with hearing loss. to show her students.
The company played its outtakes from the movie “Interstellar,” whose composer Hans Zimmer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. Landers said the biggest surprise was the intensity of the sensations.
“When the song was getting lower, the different parts of you didn’t just vibrate; The level of precision they put into it was amazing.”
Tested on up to three-quarters of a mile from the stage, the tech plays both pulsating bass tracks and classic chops (it was mostly dance-pop and electronic music in the mix at a silent disco on a recent Saturday night at Lincoln Center).
“What they do is very important,” Ms Landers said of “Music: A Not Impossible Vision” to create a shared musical experience for all concert-goers. “People often view inclusivity as something like, ‘Oh, this is so complicated,’ and then they don’t, but it’s not that difficult.”
Music: Not Impossible currently offers suits to organizations as part of a full package deal, which includes up to 90 suits; a team of employees on site who will help people get it, answer questions and troubleshoot technology; Plus a team of “vibro DJs” trained to assign vibrato transmission locations to each song in a set.
Prices start at a few thousand dollars for a “basic experience,” which includes two suits and a vibrato DJ, Mr. Bilker said, and can reach six figures for experiences that take up a large portion of the company’s inventory of 90 suits in the US.
(Lincoln Center, which has made the suits available at a handful of events each summer since 2021, has donned 75 suits to two silent nights at the disco and Mostly a Mozart Festival Orchestra concert this summer, up from the 50 they gave per event last year.)
“The only condition we ask on this front is that the deaf and hard-of-hearing should not be paid any fees for our experience,” said Mr. Bilker.
But the lack of affordability for most consumers is one reason why haptic suits, while promising, are currently an impractical option for most individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Dickie Harts, a 25-year-old New York actor and artist who was born deaf and considers himself a regular among the city’s club scene, got the chance to try out an earlier version of his music suits: Not Impossible at a Los Angeles concert some eight years ago. (Some deaf people use capital letters in reference to a distinct cultural identity.)
While he appreciates the intent behind it, he said, he prefers having ASL interpretation along with the commentary conveying the lyrics.
“Feeling the vibration wasn’t an issue for me,” he said in a recent video call with the help of an ASL interpreter. “I want to know what the lyrics are. I don’t want to reach out to my hearing friend and say, ‘Oh, what song are they playing?'”
Another concern, he said, is that the packs could make deaf people targets for bullying. At the event he tested them in Los Angeles, he said, only the deaf were using them, which made him feel isolated.
But he added that if hearing members of the public wear suits as well, like at silent disco nights at Lincoln Center, he’d be interested in being a part of that.
Music: Not Impossible, Mr. Belker said, hopes to create a product that everyone can use.
This vision appeared at the silent disco at Lincoln Center. As dusk fell, about 75 people wearing red, green or blue headphones had a chance to try on the suits. They swayed and swayed on pulsating dance-pop tracks sometimes alone, carving their own rhythm circle, sometimes in groups.
“It’s like raindrops on my shoulder,” said Regina Valdez, 55, who lives in Harlem.
“Oh my God, it’s shaking,” said Lucas Garcia, 6, who looked surprised as he looked down at his jacket. His parents, Chris Garcia and Aida Alvarez, who also wore jackets, danced nearby.
It was – by design – impossible to tell who was deaf and who was hearing.
But Zimmerman, who tested the suits for the first time, said he still hopes for more modifications.
“I would like it to be so good if a beautiful note on the violin made me cry,” he said. “And a funny trombone blast will make me laugh.”
Katie Van Syckle Contribute to the preparation of reports.