About this video

Recent interdisciplinary research by the University of Liverpool (Principal Investigator: Professor Carl Hopkins) and the Royal Northern College of Music investigated interactive performance for musicians with a hearing impairment. This research aimed to (a) understand and disseminate strategies currently used by musicians with a hearing impairment in group performance in terms of the non-auditory aspects of musical performance and (b) assess the potential and limitations of using vibration applied to the skin to transmit music.

As 'proof of principle' to show the potential for vibrotactile technology, this video shows three musicians playing 'Day Tripper' (The Beatles) in the anechoic chambers of the Acoustics Research Unit at Liverpool. They are playing using vibrotactile feedback without any visual or auditory feedback.

The research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant No. AH/H008926/1), included in the Universities UK initiative ‘Big Ideas for the Future’ and was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education (THE) 2013 Award for ‘Research Project of the Year’.

Our journal papers on this topic can be accessed using the links below:
1) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155807
2) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10298649211015278
3) https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2021.732713