---
title: "New Tech Allows Deaf People To Sense Sounds"
description: "With 28.8 million adults in the U.S. that could benefit from hearing aids, a new vest that translates sound into touch is a new frontier of auditory possibility. This vest is the latest tech that seeks to assist those with disability while also expanding the ways in which humans perceive the world."
date: "2016-10-27"
modified: "2016-10-27"
authors:
  - name: "Eleazer Corpuz"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/eleazercorpuz.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/new-tech-allows-deaf-people-to-sense-sounds"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Prosthetics and Devices"
tags:
  - "hearing loss"
  - "sensory signals"
  - "wearables"
---

# New Tech Allows Deaf People To Sense Sounds

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/S.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Futurism/VC\</em\>*

## More Than a Feeling

Neuroplasticity is the idea that the brain constantly changes throughout an individual's whole lifespan. This means that a brain can connect and re-connect its neurons to other different neurons. Such an idea is at the heart of neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman's [development,](<http://singularityhub.com/2016/10/09/this-smart-vest-lets-the-deaf-hear-with-their-skin/>) a vest that uses the sense of touch to help the deaf 'hear' again.

Eagleman, together with Scott Novich and his team from Rice University developed this technology using the [Sensory Substitution](<http://www.eagleman.com/research/sensory-substitution>) technique. It is the technique that takes over the functions of a damaged sensory organ by feeding information to another channel, usually another sensory organ. This is why some blind people are able to use echolocation to 'see' their surroundings.

![Credit: Scott Novich and David Eagleman](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/VAC-1.jpg>)
*Credit: Scott Novich and David Eagleman*

The Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer (VEST) is outfitted with an array of motors that vibrate when a microphone picks up sound from its surroundings. The sound picked up by the microphone is processed by a micro controller which then translates the data into intricate vibrations that a person could feel. With a bit of getting used to, a person can finally perceive sound through tactile means.

## New Ways Of Perceiving The World

The VEST joins a growing list of devices that allow people to sense their surroundings in different ways and even help some of them regain their senses. Technologies like a bionic fingertip allow amputees to regain their sense of touch. Other technologies, like a [shirt that senses air pollution](<https://futurism.com/category/future-society>) allow people to perceive whole new aspect of the world.

Eagleman [shares the same vision](<https://www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_senses_for_humans/transcript?language=en#t-946244>) saying that the VEST could be used to stream stock market prices allowing people to perceive the world's economy. Pilots could sense the orientation of their plane intuitively allowing for a much more stable flight, and astronauts can 'feel' the status of the International Space Station using this technology. All of this could completely transform the ways humans can perceive reality.

## More

- [Could We Hack Our Brains to Gain New Senses?](<https://futurism.com/could-we-hack-our-brains-to-gain-new-senses.md>)
- [“Provocative” Research: Some People Can Sense Magnetic Fields](<https://futurism.com/some-humans-detect-earths-magnetism.md>)
- [MIT Tech Make It Possible To 3D Print Ultra-fine Programmable Hair](<https://futurism.com/mit-tech-make-it-possible-to-3d-print-ultra-fine-programmable-hair.md>)
- [This New Tech Is Letting Blind People Read Without Braille](<https://futurism.com/this-new-tech-is-letting-blind-people-read-without-braille.md>)
- [New Device Lets People Who Are Blind “See” in Infrared](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/people-blind-infrared-camera.md>)
- [Tech Exec Brags That New Phone’ Cameras Will Always Be Watching You](<https://futurism.com/tech-exec-phone-camera-always-watching.md>)
- [For a Thousand Bucks, You Can Get the First Non-Dorky Smart Glasses](<https://futurism.com/smart-glasses-dorky.md>)
- [New Wearables Can Be Printed Directly Onto Skin](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/wearables-printed-directly-onto-skin.md>)