Audio-tactile multimodal perception of tissue-conducted sound fields

Abstract

Approximately 5% of the World’s population, that is, 360 million people, suffer from “disabling hearing loss” and the proportion of over-65s rises to about 33%. 13.4% of geriatric patients have significant conductive components to their hearing loss. For this segment of the population, “music deprivation” may have significant long-term health and wellbeing consequences amounting to diminished quality of life (QoL). Assistive technologies implementing sensory augmentation could ameliorate the effects of lack of ready access to music, the experiential attributes of music listening can be reinstated and tangible benefits might accrue.