BEATHOVEN is the result of research into the aesthetic qualities of tactile vibrations and how they can help include otherwise excluded people into the world of music. This innovative concept offers an entirely new way of experiencing music, which invites Deaf, Deafblind, Hard of Hearing, as well as fully Hearing, to connect with each other and their cultural heritage through music.
National
Sweden
{Empty}
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Adam Last name: Mattsson Gender: Male Age: 29 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Sweden Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Vetekornsgatan 7 Town: Mölndal Postal code: 43146 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 70 291 06 05 E-mail:design.amattsson@gmail.com
First name: Martin Last name: Åhlén Gender: Male Age: 26 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Sweden Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Affärsvägen 4E Town: Råneå Postal code: 955 31 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 70 292 55 45 E-mail:l.martin.ahlen@gmail.com
BEATHOVEN is an innovation that offers an entirely new way of experiencing music, through vibrotactile sensations on the body. The main objective is to include otherwise music-excluded, such as Deaf and Hard of Hearing, but also offer new music sensations to all. This concept stemmed from a master's thesis project in design at Luleå University of Technology.
BEATHOVEN has two different modes for experiencing music; it can be connected to a user’s phone via Bluetooth to stream music directly, or it can pick up live music directly via a microphone. This means that the product can be used anywhere and for any type of music. It can be used comfortably at home or brought along during a commute or to a live concert. An algorithm transposes the music down to fit the frequency range that the human body is able to perceive, but even though the music is compressed, no data will be lost and the full music will be conveyed through a richer and more detailed lower register. The product features five actuators: three on the chest and two on the neck, to which the music is distributed in different registers: low, mid, and high. The lower register is conveyed through a single actuator, and the mid and high registers each have two actuators that allow for stereo playback. It is operated through a user-friendly, haptic interface inspired by braille.
Inclusion through music
Hearing impairment
Vibraesthetics
Haptic embodied experience
Cultural heritage and community
BEATHOVEN promotes inclusiveness and social sustainability by making music available to more people, including Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Research has shown that music can provide a person with a sense of belonging. In fact, when listening to a song, the same regions of the brain are activated as when interacting with another person. Music plays a large role in so many people’s lives and the majority of people are able to enjoy the sense of community music provides. However, currently, not everyone is invited to take part in this community, a fact which we intend to change with our concept. We believe music can be a social bridge for people otherwise struggling to connect with other people or to find a sense of belonging, and BEATHOVEN can open this bridge up to include Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The wearable device is made from recycled materials and constructed in a way that is easy to disassemble at the end of its life.
Aesthetics is more than simply the physical form of a product and, while we have explored this type of aesthetics, our main focus has been on the aesthetics of the experience, more specifically the aesthetic qualities of tactile vibrations. During the project, this came to be called Vibraesthetics, which we continued to explore in the field of music. The main goal of the project is to incorporate vibraesthetics into the design of an accessible and inclusive product for enjoying music. We have experimented with the placement of the actuators on the body to find that the chest, where the sternum meets the collarbones, is the optimal location where the music is perceived profoundly and pleasurably. The low and mid-tones are strong here and they resonate out far through the body. The chest location is accompanied by two actuators placed on the neck, where high frequencies are better perceived and which beautifully complements the chest to create a feeling that the music embraces you.
The form of the product is inspired by vibrations and the human anatomy. The triangular shapes on the front are born from experimentation with Chladni plates and sand. Research shows that we feel vibrations the strongest in our bodies at 200-250 Hz, and when you let sand vibrate on a Chladni plate at these frequencies, this smooth triangular shape emerges. The opposite side of the design, the part which is in contact with the body, is inspired by the shape the chest bone and collarbones create together since this is where the vibrations resonate the strongest. Finally, the strap and neckpiece conclude the design with a dynamic shape that embraces the body - emotions that music evokes.
Music is amazing and a great part of so many people’s lives, but there are people who are excluded from it. Music was originally created for listeners, but what does that mean for someone with hearing impairment? Throughout history, music has been a medium for bringing people together - forming communities and cultures. Music has strong connections to different times and places, providing us with ways to express ourselves, bond with other people around us, as well as create common identities and cultural heritages. Thanks to music and the technology of today, people can access these different times and places from all over the world, building bonds without borders. BEATHOVEN does not just offer a new way to access these communities for more people but also changes how we think about music and how we express it in more inclusive ways.
The design of the product itself can be worn and used by a wide group of people. It is easily put on and the braille-inspired interface provides haptic feedback which allows it to be operated using just one hand without the need of seeing or hearing it.
The core target groups for the concept are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and members of these groups have been involved with the development of the concept through surveys, interviews, and workshops on several occasions during the process. Besides helping us make the design of the product usable and useful, and teaching us about alternative ways of experiencing the world, working together with these people has made the need and desire for a product such as this abundantly clear. We have talked with some people who lost their hearing later in life, who long to relive their experience of music, and other people who have been deaf since birth, and have never had the chance to enjoy the full and wonderful experience of music. We really want to bring the joy of music back to them.
The BEATHOVEN product experience stemmed from a collaboration with Swedish-based research company Pariception and their research into assistive devices primarily for deaf-blind users. Through our own and Pariception’s research, we found that vibrotactile stimulation can provide an effective substitute for hearing and compensate for hearing loss and that this can be applied to music. The use of haptic technology for communication has seen a huge rise in recent years, but we believe it has more potential than it currently lives up to, not least when it comes to including more people in society. Pariception and their researchers provided us with technology, expertise, experience, a network, and encouragement, which all proved invaluable for the development of the project.
We firmly believe that great innovation happens at the intersection of disciplines and in the course of our research we have visited several and varied fields of knowledge, including haptics, acoustics, music composition and production, aesthetics, design, and neuroscience. All of these fields have informed both our research and our final results. We have reviewed literature and interviewed experts, and each interaction has directly influenced the next. What we learned from one field would help us narrow our search into another. This would then inform how we set up our workshops with users, which in turn informed our next trip into literature, and so on. For example, the interaction between the fields of haptics, acoustics and neuroscience made us aware of the incredible potential of the human torso to discern a sense of direction from vibrations, which further informed our design decisions for the product. We believe this collaborative learning process has been a great way of exploring this new and exciting territory.
BEATHOVEN stands out from the mainstream in several different ways, but the most important way is that the entire product concept is based primarily on how Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard-of-Hearing experience music. There are a few existing products, but they are designed for hearing people, to offer an enhanced musical experience only by conveying powerful bass. They neither can nor aim to convey the whole music independently, as BEATHOVEN can. Furthermore, this concept is portable, and can both capture live music and stream music when connected to a computer or phone, thus letting the user take the music with them.
There are also some other great examples of aid-oriented products for Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard-of-Hearing. These products focus on conveying ambient sounds through tactile vibrations to support everyday life but are not designed for musical experiences. Another existing solution is bone-conduction headphones, which can allow some users to alleviate their hearing impairment. However, this type of headphone only bypasses the eardrum itself and still utilizes the same functions of the brain - it only works for a few specific forms of hearing loss.
The project did not only materialize into a new product concept, but also a newly emerging field of research: Vibraesthetics. This opens up the door to further investigation of tactile vibrations in terms of aesthetic qualities, and how to use them to improve people’s lives. In addition to this, there are especially three elements that we find could be replicated or transferred to other contexts of use: The technology, key learnings, and approach.
The technology could be expanded into other categories of products. There are so many occasions when people listen to music, and this technology could be applied to meet the needs of each of these occasions. The technology can also be applied similarly to supplement hearing with one's ears, both for people with hearing impairment and for anyone who for any reason wants or needs to keep their ears free, but still need to receive continuous information or experience music. Also within music production, the technology could drive a radical shift by adding new dimensions to the music itself as well as promoting new types of music - multisensorial music or even music specifically composed to be experienced haptically.
There are some great learnings we obtained during the project that can be beneficial for the development of other types of vibrotactile products. As an example, we found a great diversity in how different people perceive the world around them differently, and how well people adapt to sensorial loss. Also, how different frequencies, in different combinations, and on different parts of the body can evoke different experiences and emotions. The decision of splitting up the frequencies between the chest and the neck to create an embracing sensation was made thanks to this discovery.
The approach of starting from people outside of the norm could benefit design practices in general. It encourages a natural sense of empathy as well as teaches us about other people, allowing us to connect to them more easily.
There are people all over the world who live with varying degrees of hearing impairments, and over 5% of the world's population suffer from hearing loss severe enough to be classified as “disabling”. Hearing loss is a cause of social isolation and loneliness, and even when it comes to music, which for many can be a source of comfort in loneliness, Deaf and Hard of Hearing are excluded once again. Even greater than comforting someone in loneliness or sadness, music can bring with it so much joy and pleasure in life. With BEATHOVEN we invite everyone to take part in music and the communities surrounding it, both to experience it fully and to express themselves in creating it. Music is an arena of society, both locally and globally, where everyone should be able to take part, and we believe our concept can help make that happen. First of all by opening the doors to music, and also by reducing the stigma around hearing disabilities themselves. The extended benefits of our concept, besides creating a more inclusive and joyful world, we believe would be to reduce the cost of hearing disabilities to society, which the World Health Organisation estimates poses an annual global cost of US$ 980 billion.
