Sentio
Feel the Music
Vision and hearing are two dominant senses, and when having a combined impairment of both vision and hearing, the reliability and use of our touch increases. Sentio was designed for the sense of touch, making it possible for the sensory impaired to enjoy music with the help of vibrations.
The purpose of this project was to design Sentio, a product based on the technology developed by Pariception AB. Sentio is a vibrotactile music aid that uses four vibrators with different frequency ranges that enables individuals with hearing impairment, deafness or deafblindness to perceive and enjoy music by vibrations.
Sentio can be worn on the head or around the neck to change the placement of the vibrations from the head to the chest. The band is flexible so that it could be shaped for different body shapes without compromising the quality of the vibrations. To increase the vibrations from an audio speaker, people with hearing impairment tend to raise the volume, which may disturb their surroundings. Sentio can transmit sounds in two ways; through a microphone or via a bluetooth device. The microphone helps the user to feel the sounds around them, and the bluetooth feature enables the user to feel music without disturbing people around them.
Every individual, sensory impaired or not, experience music differently. Therefore, the possibility to personalize the use of Sentio was the main focus of the project.
