Not Impossible Labs, an award-winning technology incubator that specializes in using tech to solve challenges has invented Music: Not Impossible (m:ni), a Vibro-textile wearable that creates an immersive experience of music geared towards the deaf.
For people who are deaf or have hearing loss, music becomes a one-dimensional experience of powerful low-frequency sounds hitting them, literally vibrating their bodies—something Not Impossible’s CEO Mike Ebeling deemed ‘absurd.’
Generally, people hear sounds when the vibrations of a source (an instrument or voice) travel through the air to the eardrum. The vibrations transmit through tiny bones into the inner ear where the cochlear converts these vibrations into signals the brain can interpret.
Photo from Not Impossible Labs
However, this isn’t the case for the hearing-impaired.
Therefore, to produce a richer experience for people with hearing impairments, Ebeling decided to bypass the eardrum and look to an alternative receptor for these vibrations—the human skin.
While having a design ethos “help one, help many”, starting projects with the notion of solving one problem for one person, scaling a system as complex as the M: NI (Music: Not Impossible) system was not as simple as taking the prototype, making it look good and building more of them.
The wrist and ankle bands were wireless allowing freedom of movement, but each would require batteries to power LED lights, actuators and motors to produce the vibrations and all the wireless parts needed to communicate with the harness.
The harness itself needed to be lightweight and comfortable to move and dance in, it too incorporated lights and actuators and vibration modules as well as a subwoofer speaker.
All the separate parts needed to be synchronised and communicating with each other reliably, but without interfering with the main broadcast signal that had to be synchronised with the music being played.
All communication also had to take place within a 30-millisecond window or the sensation would be, as Avnet; the company charged with upscaling the product highlighted; “like watching television when the audio is out of sync”.
The first test of the system was at the ‘Life is Beautiful’ festival in Las Vegas. You can watch the video, below.
It enabled an audience of hearing and non-hearing guests to share a musical experience. Together, the hearing was an additional element, but not a crucial one. The experience was not only inclusive but enhanced for everyone.
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