Vibrotactile control software systems and methods

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed to facilitate creating the sensation of vibrotactile movement on the body of a user. Vibratory motors are used to generate a haptic language for music or other stimuli that is integrated into wearable technology. The disclosed system in certain embodiments enables the creation of a family of devices that allow people such as those with hearing impairments to experience sounds such as music or other input to the system. For example, a “sound vest” or other wearable array transforms musical input to haptic signals so that users can experience their favorite music in a unique way, and can also recognize auditory or other cues in the user's real or virtual reality environment and convey this information to the user using haptic signals.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system for transforming sensory stimulus to a haptic language, comprising:
 a signal processor configured to receive a sensory stimulus and simultaneously generate a plurality of electrical driving signals according to a predefined mapping from signals comprising portions of said sensory stimulus to each of said plurality of electrical driving signals;   a wearable array of items comprising vibratory motors; and   a network comprising a plurality of said vibratory motors incorporated into said wearable array, wherein said plurality of electrical driving signals generated by said signal processor are used to drive said plurality of vibratory motors according to a predefined mapping of signals comprising portions of said sensory stimulus to a plurality of different regions of said wearable array.