We’ve already seen haptic devices that let you “feel the music,” although they’ve typically just delivered bass vibrations to a particular part of the body. BodyRocks is a little different, in that uses individual “stones” to put a full frequency of vibes wherever users want
At the heart of the system is an item known as the BassBelt, which receives music from an iOS/Android app on the user’s smartphone via Bluetooth. It utilizes integrated transducers to give the wearer a rhythmic bass thump at the waist, plus it wirelessly relays the music to third-party Bluetooth speakers or headphones, and it sends select frequencies of that music to up to 40 of the stones.
And just what are those? Well, they’re small flat transducer-equipped devices that vibrate in time to the music, and which are applied to any part of the body using supplied adhesive tape. Utilizing the app, users can assign different audio frequencies to different stones. This means that wearers could feel the bass in their shoulders (and waist, via the belt), for instance, with the highs on their forearms and the mid-range on their thighs.
If users don’t want to figure out where to send what, the app has a number of frequency-distribution presets that are optimized for different types of music. The app is additionally used to set the intensity at which each stone vibrates.
One wireless Qi-based charge should keep the stones going for a claimed four to six hours of run time, and sweat shouldn’t be a problem, as they’re IP68 water-resistant (they can be submersed up to 1.5 m/4.9 ft for 30 minutes). That said, we’re not sure how sweat-proof the tape is.
Should you be interested, BodyRocks is currently the subject of an Indiegogo campaign. Backers can pledge US$99 for a two-stone setup (planned retail $229) or $149 for a system with four stones (retail $279).
BodyRocks uses wearable stones to give music-lovers a buzz [New Atlas]