The SoundShirt 2.0

The SoundShirt is wearable technology in the form of a long-sleeve t-shirt, which allows deaf and hearing people to feel music through touch sensations.

It brings music to life in a way that can be felt physically, live, in-realtime, on the body in a tactile language unique to each piece of music - opening new and diverse ways of enjoying it. Instruments correspond to different locations of the sensations (sounds from the violins being energetic and lighter are felt along the arms and shoulders, while deeper sounds of bass or kettle drums are felt deep in the lower areas of the body).

The music comes to life as a sensory language composed of haptic, tactile, vibratory and touch-like sensations across the body of the person wearing the shirt. The shirt is made of smart textiles, and contains no wires. It is wirelessly connected to a computer running the music-to-haptic translation algorithms in real time, so the sensations are perfectly synchronised with the performance of the music.