Pyramind’s ongoing MindShare series features tech demos and discussions from the front lines of audio. Attendees of this event played games using the SubPac Tactile Bass System, HTC Vive, Oculus, and the Anki Overdrive. Pyramind’s Greg Gordon moderated the panel of audio directors from Anki, SubPac, and PullString.
SubPac is a wearable or seat-back device that projects physical sound directly into your body. In this three-part video series, Sean Leonard and Ryan Origin discuss how their product enhances the VR gaming experience, as well as ways it is being used for medical purposes. Two attendees were lucky enough to walk away with a SubPac S2 and a SubPac M2.
Sean talks about how feeling the sonic experience while playing a VR game enhances interrraction. Ryan talks about how the SubPac brings a third sense – touch – into the VR experience.
Sean discusses how the SubPac technology is being applied in the medical industry. Heart doctors have actually been able to use the SubPac to diagnose different types of heart disease. A contact microphone is used to feed the audio signal from the heart into the SubPac, so that doctors can feel the heart and distinguish between the audio signatures of different types of heart disease. It has also recently begun being used to help deaf and autistic kids.
Ryan explains how much SubPac adds to the VR experience. When another sense – touch, in this case – is added to the VR experience, your level of engagement increases because things are behaving as you would expect. He talks about how the SubPac enhanced the Project Syria demo and gave him a new appreciation for what it might be like to be in that situation.
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