"So, I'll kind of hone in on, like, the bass element and I'll send that out, and then the high hats and the snare." "What we're doing is taking the feed from the DJ, and we can select and mix what we want and send it to different parts of the body," he said. The evening's haptic DJ was Paddy Hanlon, co-founder of Music: Not Impossible. 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. Lanna Apisukh for NPR Flavia Naslausky of Music: Not Impossible straps haptic suits onto a woman attending "Silent Disco: An Evening of Access Magic" at Lincoln Center. 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. Seventy-five of them were lined up on racks at a party meant to be accessible to all. It plays waves of sensation on your skin in a way that's complementary to the music.Ī recent event at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts called " Silent Disco: An Evening of Access Magic" showcased the suit's potential. It doesn't replicate the music - it's not as simple as regular taps to the beat. It can feel like raindrops on your shoulders, a tickle across the ribs, a thump against the lower back. When you wear the suit, it's surprising how much texture the sensations have. 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. 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. His team started by strapping vibrating cell phone motors to bodies, but that didn't quite work. "It was a little more challenging than I anticipated," he said, laughing. Lanna Apisukh for NPR The haptic suit vibrations have different textures, from rain drops on the shoulder to a soft tickle across the ribs.Īt first, he thought it might take a week - it took over a year.
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