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Emoti-Chair Brings Music to the Deaf

by Terrence O'Brien | Submitted Sunday Feb 15, 2009 [10:52 PM]


Remember that scene in 'Mr. Holland's Opus,' in which Richard Dreyfuss's deaf son turns up the sound on the stereo and sits on the speaker so he can "hear" the sound? Well, researchers at Ryerson University's Centre of Learning Technology and Toronto's Science of Music, Auditory Research and Technology Lab have taken that concept to its logical extreme and built the Emoti-Chair.

The Emoti-Chair is packed with speakers, motors and tubes that blast air, all with the goal of trying to translate music into physical sensations that can be experienced by the deaf. The chair will also be paired with traditional visualizations and captions when it is used in the first concert for the deaf on March 5 at the Toronto club Clifton's Tavern.

We're wondering, though, if the club will be filled with several Emoti-Chairs for a proper concert experience. More than likely, just one lucky participant will get to experience that full barrage of sensory stimulation.

A user explains the experience of “feeling”music through the Emoti-Chair:

“The first time I used the chair, I was blown away by the amount of information I could get about music from the vibrations,” Hibbard said. “For the first time in my life, I could feel sad or happy because of how the music vibrations felt on my skin. I never felt those kinds of feelings before when music was played. It was how the chair ‘played’ the music that enabled me to have a shared experience with people who are emotionally moved by listening to music.”

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Tags:auditory  rehabilitation+engineering  medical+robotics  Toronto  Ryerson+University 

(http://www.switched.com/2009/02/11/emoti-chair-brings-music-to-the-deaf/)

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