The Soundshirt allows a deaf person to feel music on their skin and experience a live symphonic concert for the first time. Just by looking at the reactions of the deaf members of the audience in the video we can see how their expression becomes enchanted and joyful, this tactile full immersion in music is something that truly allows the experience of a live concert to be finally shared by everyone.
"What you hear... I can feel!"
The Soundshirt features 16 micro-actuators embedded in the fabric of the garment, these actuators receive wirelessly and in real-time the music, transformed in data, that is captured on stage while the orchestra is playing. In this way the violins can be felt on the arms and the drums on the back creating a fully immersive feeling for a deaf audience member.
Essentially the entire composition comes to life as a language composed of a series of haptic (touch-like) sensations across the torso of the person wearing the shirt. The design of the shirt is comfortable and made of soft stretch fabric, there are no wires in the garment as it is built using the most advanced smart textiles and wearable technology.
In order to provide a comfortable experience for the wearer, the SoundShirt is created using specifically developed smart textiles; there are no wires at all in this piece of wearable technology. All of the conductive pathways within the garment are composed of woven conductive textiles that are seamlessly integrated into the fabric of the garment. The exterior decorative elements in the first prototype were precision laser cut appliqués, and in the recent iterations this decorative element was replaced with high resolution digital fabric printing to create the striking design. The visual design is a metaphor for the relationship between vibrations and sound waves modulating in different frequencies. The connecting lines also serve as a tacit diagram of the underlying data network, stretchable micro-electronic circuitry, and 3d printed details, present within the garment and otherwise invisible, that control the plurality of different actuators inside the SoundShirt.
