Deaf people to enjoy concert music thanks to new multimedia chairs launched at Ryerson

First concert for the deaf to be staged at Clinton’s Tavern on Bloor West on March 5th

By George Kagame


The highly billed multimedia ‘Emoti’ chairs custom made to assist deaf and hearing impaired people in experiencing live music during concerts were on Wednesday launched by its inventors at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.

Speaking before the chairs were previewed by journalists at the Ted Rogers School of Management’s Centre for Learning Technologies (CLT) and the Ryerson University Department of Psychology’s Science of Music, Auditory Research and Technology (SMART) lab. Professor Deborah Fels the director of CLT, who also headed Emoti chairs project said their efforts were financed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canada Council. She said the chairs were an alternative form in which sensory organs can receive sound instead of using the ears and this will greatly help deaf and hearing impaired people in enjoying live music the way other people do.

Professor Frank Russo another member of the research team said he had spent a decade studying how music can be more than just auditory and the psychological effect of music on the back and the spine, he added that music is an important form of emotional communication probably older than speech and with assistance to the deaf and people with hearing problems who were not enjoying music as other people at concerts he said; “we are providing a trully universal access to music.”

Russo further said that the emoti chairs interview as a new development in the music industry; “yes, it is a breakthrough and this is because it is the first time that deaf people will be able to receive and feel the music through several vibration channel because the technology in the chair receives the sound and translates into vibrations which are felt through voice coils in the chair.”

Russo said that the that emoti chair techinology is not yet available on the market; ;so far the research is on going and we are now primarilly concerned with how to optimize the sound technology and understand the limits of what we can do and how we assist the deaf and those impaired of hearing to access concerts.” He said the chairs have a potential market, ‘my in box is currently flooded with people who want to know more about emoti chairs.”
Members of the press were also invited to test the emoti chairs before they are put to use in the first concert for the deaf and people with hearing impairments slated to take place at Clinton’s Tavern on Bloor West street on Thursday 5th March. At the preview show Hollywood Swank on the bands to perform during next week’s show did a live performance of three songs. As the band played Ellen Hibbard a Communications Culture PhD deaf student in her second year at and David Fourney another deaf graduate student Ryerson University were invited to test the chairs.

Hibbard who has been deaf all her life and has speech impediment said after sitting in the chair that the chair felt like the summer; “It is something that is quite soothing and calming, with Emoti chair i feel like am in a new place in terms of music. I feel it on my back, in my spine and the energy that follows In terms of visualizing i felt like summer, a thunderstorm of sound and feeling.” Fourney said that the bass from the emoti chair gives a different kind of feeling to rock and roll, “it gives me a sense of music as a common language for the world of cultures. I now see musical instruments and the different direction of how i perceive sound.”

Carmen Branje a band member with Hollywood Swank who also participated in the emoti research project said the new sound technology has gone beyond past efforts by other inventors who tried to make music accessible to the deaf and others with hearing impairments; “Our method is quite different than traditional methods like speaker listening. Each chair contains at least 8 independent information channels, meaning music is split and delivered to different areas of the body. Additionally, our most sophisticated chair includes actuators and airs jets in the tactile experience.” Branje added that he hoped the chairs become widely available; :deaf people like to listen to hip hop and rhythm based music a lot. Am hoping that this technology increased their interests in other kinds of music.” Other musicians expected to perform at the concern in Clinton’s Tavern include, Fox Jaws, ill.gates and the Dufraines.

The chairs, named ‘Emoti chairs’ by their manufacturers function as multimedia systems where the music is translated into full-body vibrations which the chair’s occupant feels instead of hearing the sound, the frequencies are translated by a computer into a physical response like a vibration or rocking or a blast of air on your face. They were developed to open up a new world for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music in a concert setting. The technology was developed by researchers from the
Researchers from CLT and SMART lab explained that Emoti-Chairs and MusicViz technology makes music more accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and discussed how the technology will be used at the concert on March 5th.