Stylishly Translating Music For Those Hard of Hearing

CuteCircuit are giving back, with the launch of their non-traditional sound shirt that translates sounds into sensations. This innovative creation, similar to CuteCircuit’s sensitive Hug Shirt, has been designed to help those who are hard of hearing to ‘feel’ music.

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Founders of CuteCircuit, Francesca Rossella & Ryan Genz

Providing deaf people with a whole new way of internalizing something they cannot hear, the shirt works by different notes creating distinct feelings across areas of the garment. With several patents pending and awarded, CEO Ryan Genz recently explained the ins and outs of how the sound shirt works to Fortune, “We mapped intuitively how we thought the music would map to the body.”

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He continued, “The deeper, heavier bass notes [activate the actuators] down in lower parts of torso, and the lighter sections, like violin and lighter notes, further up on the body, around the neck area and clavicle. As they’re watching the orchestra, they can see certain areas are more active than others; they feel soundwaves in specific areas of the body, and within a few minutes understand there is a correlation.

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With milestones that include having their Galaxy Dress as part of the Permanent Collection of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and their iMiniSkirt as part of the Digital Revolution exhibition of the Barbican Museum in London, the sky seems to be the limit for CuteCircuit founders, Ryan and Francesca, who also shared that they envision the Sound Shirt being possibly used for other endeavours such as gaming, so watch this space!


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SOURCEPhoto|Video Credit: CuteCircuit