Experts in the field of sensory stimulation have experimented with wild ideas over the past few years to make the experience more immersive in Virtual Reality (VR). Some have been studying how the visual content can generate phantom touch sensations on the skin, while others have tried to build a perfume system that realistically simulates what the character smells, or even eats, in the virtual world. Experts in Japan have now turned their heads to bass, and more specifically, bass that is pushed deep within your skin.
Inject that bass deep into my skin
Engineers at the University of Tsukuba have created what they refer to as “a portable, silent subwoofer,” a tiny device that electrically stimulates the muscles. The device essentially combines low-frequency vibrations with a weak current that stimulates muscle contraction and simulates the sensation of bass thumps.
“This device enables users to physically feel deep bass in virtual reality (VR) and everyday music,” says the team behind the device, which looks like small patches applied on the abdominal area with a small wired unit similar to a miniaturized MagSafe charging puck. In scientific terms, the technique is called Myoelectric Stimulation or electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), and it essentially creates the feeling of a silent subwoofer for producing deep bass sensations.
The technique is not too different from what you experience with open-ear bone conduction earbuds. These devices come equipped with vibrating transducers for producing vibrations that travel through the bones and directly reach the cochlea, where you finally perceive them as sound. In this case, the sensation of bass is channeled through the abdominal muscles.
What’s the big picture?
The core components of the device include a low-pass filter (LPF), a bass detector (Kick detector), and an EMS generator. In a research paper that was published in the IEEE Access journal, the team argues that the fundamental principle of electrically stimulating muscles to inject bass can be replicated on other body parts, as well. Another crucial benefit of this setup is that the whole approach tackles the ambient noise problem pretty well.
Now, you might think that the idea of sending an electric shock through muscles and vibrations won’t quite match the lovely bass output you get from a decent speaker set-up or wearable gear. Well, it seems the nearly two dozen participants roped in to test the device had a fairly eye-opening time experiencing bass through their abdominal muscles, or the abs.
“The results showed that the system reproduced rhythm and depth comparable to traditional speakers and subwoofers, while significantly reducing ambient noise,” the team reports. Moreover, the folks who tested the device remarked that it provided an even more natural feel of bass and deeper immersion. The team hopes that the tech can be further refined and integrated with VR hardware, such as headsets, and games, too.
