Pre-Order Now > Experience the feeling
of being fully immersed
in Music SOUNDSHIRT Pre-Order Now > Experience the feeling
of being fully immersed
in Music Totally Wireless:
No Cables Anywhere Inside or Out 28 High Resolution Haptic Actuators Lightweight:
Feels like a garment SOUNDSHIRT

Feel Music on your Skin

The SoundShirt creates a visceral experience of music, bringing it to life in a truly immersive way!

It is a shirt which allows both deaf and hearing audience members to experience music and virtual reality enhanced by real-time touch (haptic) sensations. During a live or virtual performance, the wearer physically experiences each musical passage, different instruments corresponding to different locations across the garment. It allows those who are hard of hearing, deaf or hearing impaired to deeply explore the world of music using their tactile senses, rendering any audio into a multi-sensory experience.

Haptic Sensations

The SoundShirt features 28 micro-actuators embedded in the fabric, these actuators receive wirelessly and in real-time the music/sound transformed into data that is captured on the stage while the orchestra is playing or during a video game play. In this way, the trumpets can be felt on the arms and the drums on the back creating a fully immersive feeling for a deaf audience member, and the steps of a Titan can be felt in all their power while playing a video game.

The entire soundscape comes to life as a language composed of a series of touch-like sensations across the torso of the person wearing the shirt.

Lyric Opera of Chicago

The Lyric Opera of Chicago have fused the fashion and technology of the SoundShirt with the operatic experience, providing both deaf and hard of hearing audience members with a nuanced and immersive interpretation of the opera’s music and voices.

Tickets for experiencing the SoundShirt at the Live Opera are available at the Lyric Opera of Chicago website.

Live in Action

When the Soundshirt is used for a live event (e.g an Opera, Rock concert) the system can use up to 8 microphones linked to various parts of the stage/orchestra. Using each audio produced by the various instruments, the software is able to translate the sound produced in an analogue to digital music capture system that transforms the music being played into data which is then mapped across the body in real-time touch sensations.

A symphony on your skin.

Recorded Music

Feel pre-recorded music without the need for multitrack input!

Using the mobile version of the software, you can choose your favourite track from your phone and feel it! Any stereo track can be split into channels, dividing up the frequencies within the music. A more immersive feel; it feels like being at a rock concert while on the daily commute!

Video Games

The SoundShirt can connect to any video game console, such as PlayStation for example, and transform sounds into haptics in realtime during gameplay. 

For developers looking to create specific haptic features for their games, we are happy to provide the Soundshirt API, in this way you can integrate directly into your game for an even more immersive and detailed game experience. 

Tech specs

  • Rechargeable Brain Controller (USB-C)
  • 28 Haptic micro-actuators
  • Q Pro software 
  • Haptics (touch communication)
  • Advanced wireless communication
  • Oekotex certified textiles, no pesticides and no harmful substances
  • Heat-bonded construction.
  • No wires!
  • Designed in London.
  • RoHS, FCC, CE, Certified
  • CuteCircuit Gold Standard for Sustainability, you can return this garment for recycling
  • Lifetime warranty, in case of need it can be repaired
  • Sustainable zero-waste and modular design. 
  • Unisex design for men and women.

Design

All of the conductive pathways within the garment are composed of woven conductive textiles that are seamlessly integrated into the fabric. The exterior visual decoration of the garment combines laser cut elements and high-resolution digital fabric printing to create a striking design.

The design visualises the relationship between vibrations and sound waves modulating in different frequencies. The connecting lines also serve as a diagram of the underlying data network; stretchable micro-electronic circuitry and 3D details in the garment (and otherwise invisible) which control the actuators inside the SoundShirt.

Sustainability

SoundShirt prioritises sustainability without compromising on design or comfort throughout the manufacturing process. The shirt has a modular design, ensuring that all parts can be disassembled and then reused with their same function in a different system, or simply more easily recycled. The zero waste manufacturing process ensures that the product uses its available materials to a maximum, and the production does too.

It was emotional, a strong reaction. You can feel so many different sorts of frequencies. It's almost like feeling the depth of the music.``
Hermon Berhane, deaf influencer

SoundShirt Stories

“I was ambivalent about feeling I would benefit and I’m so glad I was wrong. I was really surprised at how kind of lost I felt without it.”

Rachel Arfa, the first deaf commissioner of MOPD, the highest-ranking deaf person to serve in a city government leadership role, watching a live performance of West Side Story at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

I can feel the violins so delicately, every deaf person should experience this.``
Kassandra, deaf dancer at the Junge Symphoniker Hamburg

Awards

The SoundShirt won numerous awards over the past years.
These reflect its innovative design and transformative possibilities.
Time celebrates the SoundShirt as one of the best inventions that are making the world better, smarter and even a bit more fun

The awards include:

  • 2023 Dubai Lynx Gold Award
  • 2020 Time Best Inventions
  • 2020 AWE XR Auggie Award Best Societal Impact in VR and AR
  • 2019 UNESCO NETEXPLO Innovation Award
    for Technology that Improves Life
  • 2019 Innovate UK Audience of the Future Award
  • 2019 ARS electronica S+T+ARTS prize Nominee
  • 2019 D&AD Awards, Future, Product, Equality and Diversity
  • 2018 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards
    Honourable Mention in: Fashion and Beauty, Experimental, Social Good
  • 2018 Dezeen Awards shortlisted for Wearable Design
ARS ELECTRONICA STARTS PRIZE 2019 NOMINEE
Technology that Improves Life
Audience of the Future
Auggie Award Best Societal Impact in VR and AR
UNESCO NETEXPLO INNOVATION AWARD
Fashion and Beauty, Experimental, Social Good

SoundShirt FAQ

Why is it important to design inclusive products? 

Design today needs to be inclusive, creating solutions for all people. As a larger field of activity, contemporary design has exceptional tools and talent, and it is only right that such potential can be applied to all people with many different characteristics and needs.

From the perspective of a designer, it is invigorating to think about the diversity of ways that human perception can be applied to lived experiences.

In what kind of environment do we envision the use of the Soundshirt?

The initial public iteration of the SoundShirt was specifically intended for use with a Symphony Orchestra, so that a person could feel each individual piece of an orchestra as a separate sensation on their body. Since then, many people have imagined other applications for the shirt which can undoubtedly enhance its use.

These can include video games, immersive interactive installations, museum tours, augmented and virtual reality.

What might people miss out on by not being able to experience music? 

Experiencing music can bring people closer together as it activates our emotional expression. This is why it is important to create music experiences that are inclusive, so that all audience members can feel a sense of connectedness. 

The sound shirt makes a music experience inclusive for the deaf and it can also provide a sensory augmentation for other audience members. Live music experience has an added drama of unpredictability, being able to translate this expressiveness immediately in real-time opens doors for accessibility potential.