Reactual Lab Reviews

One of the main investigative areas here is tactile sound. So what is tactile sound exactly? It is the sensation of sound transmitted directly to the human body by contact, rather than by sound waves through the ears (or via tympatic sensation).

More specifically, it is sound perceived through bone conduction, through muscles and deep tissue, and via skin sensation. We perceive the vibrations through our haptic senses which include both kinesthetic (muscle) and touch (cutaneous) senses. We feel both inaudible (infrasonic frequencies) and audible frequencies. Thus, tactile sound is not just brute rumbles and shock waves. Tactile sound can be perceived in high fidelity up to the mid-range frequencies. According to NASA research we perceive 0-1 kHz through the sense of touch, 0-30 kHz through kinesthesia (the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body), and 0.20 kHz to 20 kHz through our ears. Note there’s an overlap — in the 0.02-1kHz range.