---
title: "Make Music A Full Body Experience With A “Vibro-Tactile” Suit"
description: "A high-tech suit vibrates to let users feel music — a new way for everyone to experience sound, according to its creators, but especially for deaf people."
date: "2018-09-27"
modified: "2018-09-27"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/vibro-tactile-suit-music"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Prosthetics and Devices"
tags:
  - "avnet"
  - "deafness"
  - "hearing"
  - "mandy harvey"
  - "music"
  - "not impossible"
  - "the digest"
---

# Make Music A Full Body Experience With A “Vibro-Tactile” Suit

![A high-tech suit vibrates to let users feel music — a new way for everyone to experience sound, according to its creators, but especially for deaf people.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/vibro-tactile-suit-music11.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DoCD240XkAAonBe.jpg:large" target="\_blank"\>Not Impossible Labs\</a\>\</em\>*

## SYNESTHETES

Tired: Listening to music.
Wired: *Feeling* the music.

A mind-bending new suit straps onto your torso, ankles and wrists, then uses actuators to translate audio into vivid vibration. The result: a new way for everyone to experience music, [according to its creators](<https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/music-not-impossible-provides-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-music-300718746.html>). That's especially exciting for people who have trouble hearing.

## THE FEELIES

The Music: Not Impossible suit was created by design firm Not Impossible Labs and electronics manufacturing company Avnet. The suit can create sensations to go with pre-recorded music, or a "Vibrotactile DJ" can adjust the sensations in real time during a live music event."

*Billboard* writer Andy Hermann [tried the suit out](<https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8476553/not-impossible-labs-live-music-deaf>), and it sounds like a trip.

"Sure enough, a pulse timed to a kickdrum throbs into my ankles and up through my legs," he wrote. "Gradually, \[the DJ\] brings in other elements: the tap of a woodblock in my wrists, a bass line massaging my lower back, a harp tickling a melody across my chest."

## MORE ACCESSIBLE

To show the suit off, Not Impossible and Avnet organized a performance this past weekend by the band Greta Van Fleet at the Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas. The company allowed attendees to don the suits. Mandy Harvey, a deaf musician who [stole the show](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKSWXzAnVe0>) on America's Got Talent last year, talked about what the performance meant to her in [a video](<https://www.facebook.com/AvnetInc/videos/2705663559447679/>) Avnet posted to Facebook.

"It was an unbelievable experience to have an entire audience group who are all experiencing the same thing at the same time," she said. "For being a deaf person, showing up at a concert, that never happens. You're always excluded."

**READ MORE:** [Not Impossible Labs, Zappos Hope to Make Concerts More Accessible for the Deaf — and Cooler for Everyone](<https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8476553/not-impossible-labs-live-music-deaf>) \[Billboard\]

***More on accessible design: [New Tech Allows Deaf People To Sense Sounds](<https://futurism.com/new-tech-allows-deaf-people-to-sense-sounds>)***

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)