Cricket is a game of anticipation, movement and shared emotion. For our collaboration with Hyundai Motor India, we created new SoundShirt software especially for cricket, translating the action on the field into sensations on the body.
We launched the cricket SoundShirt experience in Manchester during a T20 match featuring India’s national team. Two players followed the action from the stands through their SoundShirts, as captured in Hyundai’s new film, Feel the Game. Created as part of Samarth by Hyundai, the project brings another way to follow the sport they already know and love.
A cricket pitch you can feel
We codified the sensations of cricket: what a six, a wicket and other moments of play feel like through the SoundShirt. The new software translates these events into distinct haptic patterns, giving the action a physical language.
We tested these sensations with members of India’s national blind cricket team, gathering their feedback on how the patterns felt and communicated the match.
The SoundShirt communicates both the score and the direction of play. A single to the left is felt as one pulse on the left side of the body. A six to the right is felt on the right. Together, these sensations give the wearer a physical sense of what is happening on the field, as it happens.
From the studio to the stadium
The concept sketch below explores the SoundShirt’s silhouette, layered construction and placement of its integrated technology. Alongside it is a photograph from the cricket ground, bringing the design process and the matchday setting together.
For us, the most moving part of the project is seeing the experience become personal. That is why we create wearable technology: to bring people together through something they can feel.
Designed by Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz.
