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Idea

New skin-mediated "language" based on vibrations

Image credit: Image taken from the paper cited by the reference number 1.

jnikola

jnikola Dec 07, 2022

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Imagine having an arm or hand-mounted device that enables you to communicate with someone or something by reading vibrations they emit. 
Why?
introduce novel short-distance vibrational communication - vibrational language not mediated by voice or hearing systems
another method of communication between people speaking different languages
an additional communication tool to transfer more sensational messages (stronger emotional response)
help people with hearing problems to listen to music (or voice) via vibrations (concerts, lectures, parties, etc)
a new concept of silent parties (music transferred via touch)
How would it work?
A person would have to have a hand-held device that is able to
render sound or textual input to vibrations
read vibrations and render them back to sound or text with a minimum loss of information
How is that even possible?
Originally designed to help people with hearing disorders, the novel system allows users to "hear" music via the sense of touch . Earlier research identified key problems to solve: 1) loss of information due to the perceptible frequency range of the skin being lower than that of the auditory system and 2) no correspondence between the emotional response to music and the vibrotactile version of it. However, researchers designed an algorithm that converted music from monophonic MIDI files to tactile illusions. Although the emotional response from tactile illusions was not the same as from MIDI files, the illusion arrangement was perceived as more agreeable and stimulating than the original audio. 
Questions
What do you think about the idea?
What are the biggest downsides?
For what else would you use this technology?

[1]https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-15019-7_11

[2]https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5444677

sound vibrations music technology languages communication

2

Creative contributions

Develop the device first for medical/therapeutic purposes

Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagain Dec 10, 2022

One direction to look forward to for such a technology can be that the engineers and scientists that want to work on this can be motivated to solve specific problems in the medical field. For instance, such a device can be really useful if it can be applied to individuals who sustained serious injuries that broke down the neuro-muscular coordination of speech and hearing. Moreover, it can also be prototyped to be used for terminal patients and survivors with hearing and speech loss. I can imagine such a device being extremely useful for such patients and their families. For someone who is unable to directly express themselves as they go through palliative care, this device can truly, genuinely be useful.
On top of that, this approach will empower engineers/scientists to dynamically test the system for efficiency, errors and gives the first basic signposts to guide the future iterations.

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jnikola

jnikolaa year ago

That's very true. I found this idea in an article that tried to develop this for people with hearing impairment.

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Enhancing the experience of listening to music

Povilas S

Povilas S Dec 09, 2022

I'm not sure about using the device for communication, but I think it could serve to complement the experience of listening to music. As you mentioned in the idea description, adding a touch dimension can make the music seem more agreeable and stimulating. This is also apparent from experience - touching speakers and especially subwoofers give you an additional thrill and excitement when listening to loud music.
So when listening to music the user could wear a device that translates the song to vibrations. This gives you a feeling that you are also touched by music in addition to just hearing it.
I tried playing with a cylindrical Bluetooth speaker like this. It has mini subwoofers at its sides, so when touching a side of the speaker to your body you can feel the baseline through vibrations, try different parts of the body and see how it feels. The feeling was the best when the subwoofer is pressed to the chest. This is no surprise, cause the chest cavity acts like a resonator. When touched to the limbs the experience was comparably very shallow. Of course, this is not a device designed to translate music to vibrations, but still, it's something to keep in mind.
Implementing the device to a smartwatch or a bracelet would be very convenient, but sticking it to the chest might bring about a way better experience. The drawback to this is that keeping a vibration source close to your heart might pose health issues.

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jnikola

jnikolaa year ago

I like the direction where you are headed. You could develop an "in-ear" or "on-ear" earphone accessory that produces bass vibrations that create a deep feeling of the music. The vibrations could be implemented directly to one part of the ear or to your neck, or even your back. It would act like a transportable subwoofer for your earplugs :)

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General comments

Darko Savic

Darko Savica year ago

Isn't this similar to this idea?

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jnikola

jnikolaa year ago

Darko Savic Whoa, yes, I totally forgot about this. The shoulder pad communication reconstitutes the device that sends and receives"messages". The things these ideas differ the most are the technique the devices are using to transduce the message (poking vs vibrating) and the purpose (communication vs communication and emotional sensation). I could maybe say that shoulder pad communication could be considered a forerunning idea of vibrational communication. The advantage is that it could be easier implemented for simpler communication in video games or telemassage, but it lacks the scalability, that vibrational communication is targeting. 

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Darko Savic

Darko Savica year ago

J. Nikola pressure points provide higher bandwidth for communication. In this regard, the vibration would be like binary compared to hex for pressure points 

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Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagaina year ago

I don't think direct 'vibrational' signalling would be between individuals, at least directly into a linguistic form. Rather, can we think of some system that we can come up with that at least helps us communicate the 'states' between individuals? For example, emotional states like fear, anger, satiation, love and similar cues might be possible to be read out from one individual and then transmitted to the next one.
On the other hand, if the original idea of directly rendering sounds based on the electric/vibrational signals from the skins, would it not also enable cross-species communication? This might be my wilder imagination, but it really would be cool: my pet dog wears some rig/device/band on his neck/legs/wherever and I do the same; and based on the signals from each of our devices, we communicate back and forth. It is really interesting to think about. I don't know if it can be done in near future though. 

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Povilas S

Povilas Sa year ago

I'm a bit confused about how would such communication work. Would the system translate your words or text to vibrations that another person would sense and interpret or are you suggesting that people would somehow also generate vibrations themselves? Like a morse code tapping-like system?

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