February 5, 2009 11:38

Rock concert for deaf people to be staged in Canada

Special new chairs to help convey experience at University gig

A concert aimed at the deaf will take place on March 5 in a small club in Toronto, Canada.

Fox Jaws, The Dufraines and Hollywood Swank are among the acts that have been announced to perform at what is being claimed as being the first ever rock concert exclusively for the hearing-impaired.

Ryerson University's Centre of Learning Technology and the Science of Music, Auditory Research and Technology Lab are putting on the concert with the use of Emoti-Chairs.

The chairs are the creation of Ryerson University's Alternative Sensory Information Displays (ASID) project.

By analysing the sound frequencies of music, a computer inside the chairs translates the music into a physical experience. The chairs vibrate, move and blast air into the faces of their sitter, giving a whole new meaning to a rocking chair.

As well as the Emoti-Chairs the concert will feature captioning, interpreters and music visualisation like that found in some media player software, The Guardian.