The Haptic Wave: A Device for Feeling Sound.

We demonstrate the Haptic Wave, a device that allows audio engineers with visual impairments to "feel" the amplitude of sound, gaining salient information that sighted engineers get through visual waveforms. The demo will allow visitors, sighted or visually-impaired, to sweep backwards and forwards through audio recordings (snippets of pop songs and voice recordings), feeling sound amplitude through haptic feedback delivered by a motorized fader. The result of Participatory Design, Workshopping, and Re- search through Design methods, the Haptic Wave has been previously exhibited at the Research Through Design Conference (RTD), Visually Impaired Musicians' Lives conference, and has been trialed in real world settings in recording studios by users with visual impairments in the UK and USA. A detailed account of the research and design pro- cess of the Haptic Wave has been accepted as a full paper at CHI'16.