Flexound Augmented Audio believes that there is huge unexplored potential in multisensory products that combine haptics with sound, creating a unique, holistic, immersive listening experience that we can feel as well as hear. The company created earlier products that combine full-range high-quality audio with gentle physical sound wave vibration, to add the sensation of touch, complementing any listening experience, be it music, games, television, streaming, meditation, movies, VR or any other sound content.
Originally designed and engineered in Finland to help autistic children, the Flexound technology can add value in many industries. The company first explored the potential with its pilot consumer product HUMU Augmented Audio Cushion, which allows anyone to hear and feel their favorite content without disturbing others around. HUMU combines Bluetooth audio with haptics transducers to generate an immersive personal soundsphere with amazing bass that can be carried anywhere. The HUMU pillow is commercially available now, and users are discovering the possibilities for all kinds of home entertainment, from playing games to enhancing audio in home offices, while also using it for mediation and relaxation.
Our sense of touch is amazingly sensitive to sound and has been consistently underused in high-quality audio, except for low frequency effects in movies. Flexound aims to make audio a whole-body experience by enhancing vibrations through foam, providing a soft, nearfield listening experience. The company's patented technology can be embedded into seats, cushions and anything that is soft and in contact with the body.
The new Pulse seat from Flexound Augmented Audio is the world’s first cinema concept that transforms any space – small or large – into a superior, immersive soundscape and multisensory cinema. Typically, the effects felt in a cinema are mostly generated by the thump of the high-powered subwoofers firing sub-bass. Flexound Pulse is able to convert frequencies up to 500 hertz into haptic vibrations, and even up to 1kHz in direct contact with hands and skin. Because Pulse does not rely on far field listening or filling a room with decibels like traditional loudspeakers, sound leakage from room to room is considerably less. And by enhancing the sound with haptics, the sound reproduced by speakers doesn't need as many decibels to achieve clarity of speech, and dramatic scores and sound effects won’t mask dialog, even during the most chaotic action movie sequences.
A fully functioning cinema or gaming station can be placed in any type of room, at home or in an auditorium, without any external loudspeakers. At home, Pulse becomes a personal movie theater without disturbing the neighbors or the rest of the family. “You can use more than one Flexound boosted device in a living room. I can be on my sofa watching Grey’s Anatomy while my daughter is in the armchair listening to hip-hop, and we don’t disturb one another,” says Mervi Heinaro, CEO of Flexound.
Essentially, Flexound designed a comfortable and safe seat that is able to reproduce the full range surround sound cinema experience with its integrated, patented augmented audio technology which explores the potential of haptics transducers. Users feel and hear every little note and sound in their own personal sound-sphere. The system supports all existing sound content and formats, enhancing the emotions created by the content, and also makes it accessible to more people, such as the hearing impaired.
In its own market research Flexound found that the Pulse seats left a lasting impression on all previewers, with 91% saying that they would recommend the experience to others, and 77% reporting that they had enjoyed the new experience a lot. Riku Jaro, a sound engineer with 30 years of professional expertise in sound design, installation and optimization, said: No one can disturb you and you get perfect sound in your own space, whether you are watching football or enjoying live music.”
The new Flexound cinema sound system and seat concept is now ready for pre-orders, and for licensing to furniture and seating manufacturers. For automotive applications, Flexound sees potential to create sound zones in the cabin, replacing or reducing the number of speakers, while adding safety by physical driver feedback. The company's engineering team is ready to co-create the product to match the needs of any brand.
www.flexound.com
