The Art of Innovation
- First Posted: May 24 2011 07:48 AM
- Updated: 6 days ago
How a piece of furniture built for the deaf kick-started a new kind of music.
Many of the technologies we can't live without today were the result of unexpected innovation, where something was made for one reason and then discovered to have an entirely different purpose. In this way, researchers behind the Emoti-chair may have discovered the next fad in pop culture.
A team at Ryerson University's Department of Psychology made a vibrating chair that was designed to let the deaf experience sound. The idea was that, as someone sat watching a movie, small coils pressed against his or her back, sending bursts of vibration that corresponded to the audio in the film.
What the researchers also found was that composers could write songs specifically for the device. Instead of composing music for the ear, the musicians created songs designed to communicate music by touch.
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