A haptic floor turns sound into vibration you can feel. Stand, sit or lie on it and the music reaches you through your feet and body as well as your ears.
What does haptic mean?
Haptic means relating to touch. It comes from the Greek word for touch. Haptic technology is any technology that communicates through touch: the buzz of your phone, the rumble in a games controller. A haptic floor applies the same idea to the ground beneath you, and to music.
How does a haptic floor work?
A normal speaker moves air, and you hear the sound. A haptic floor uses tactile transducers instead. These are devices that turn an audio signal into movement in a solid surface, so the floor itself carries the music.
The best haptic floors do more than shake. A subwoofer gives you a single rumble. A well-designed haptic floor gives you detail: the kick drum, the bassline and the rhythm all feel different. At Beat Blocks, the vibration is shaped with artists and sound designers so it follows the music, not just the volume.
Read more: Bass shakers and tactile transducers explained
Haptic floor, vibrating floor or immersive floor?
People use all three phrases, but they can mean the same thing.
With Beat Blocks you feel the music, and when combined with our light decks you get a full multisensory immersive experience.
Who is a haptic floor for?
Beat Blocks started as a way for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people to share the same musical moment as everyone else, in the same space. Feeling the music doesn’t depend on hearing it.
What we found at every event is that the experience is for everyone. People who hear perfectly well step on the floor and feel music in a new way. That’s why haptic floors now appear at gigs, festivals, galleries, brand events and even yoga classes.
Where can you try a haptic floor?
Beat Blocks has been part of events including Roundhouse in London, Meltdown at Southbank Centre, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Tropical Pressure festival and RWA Bristol. It was also studied in research with Falmouth University into how audiences experience live music.
What Beat Blocks offers
Hire: we supply a range of haptic floor designs to suit the event and how it will be used.
Permanent installation: we design and build custom haptic floors for venues.
Our own experiences: we’ve started creating events of our own on our haptic floors, beginning with Haptic Yoga.
Questions
Can deaf people feel music on a haptic floor?
Yes. That’s why Beat Blocks was created. The music comes through the floor, so you feel the rhythm and the bass whether or not you hear them.
Do you need special music?
No. A haptic floor works with live and recorded music.
Can I hire a haptic floor?
Yes. Beat Blocks hires the floor with crew and technical support for gigs, festivals, tours and brand events.
