3.7 million for research in special bracelets for the deaf

People with the advanced hearing aid Cochlear Implant (CI) have difficulty perceiving rhythm and groove in music. If something can be done about it, it can have a positive effect on the implant users’ quality of life, social life and language skills.

Professor Peter Vuust and associate professor Bjørn Petersen from the Academy and from the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University will now investigate with the research project “Feeling the Beat” whether a special bracelet can use vibrations to supplement CI users’ sound perception and thus improve their perception of music. The bracelet uses so-called electro-haptic stimulation, a technology that is also known from e.g. the virtual reality world.

The research project is supported with DKK 3,740,000 by the William Demant Foundation. The Center for Music in the Brain under the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University, the Academy and Oticon Medical is responsible for the project. The research is being carried out in collaboration with Southampton University, which has developed the special bracelet.