Sound Communication Technology

Technologies designed to communicate aspects of sound through non-auditory sensory modalities, enabling access to audio information for people who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing. Examples include closed captions (text-based), vibrating vests (haptic), spectrograms (visual frequency displays), music visualizers, audio-reactive animated overlays, ambient lighting systems, and mini-map sound locators. Sound communication technologies vary in whether they appear on-screen (overlays, captions) or off-screen (haptic devices, projection lighting), and each has different strengths for communicating specific sound attributes such as type, timing, location, volume, emotion, and rhythm.