Introducing...

The Udderthump 2000

This cow-print covered folding massage-platform/seating area
has seven high-energy audio transducers bolted to the underside.
A 500 watt dedicated amplifier converts whatever music your friends are
dancing to into vibrations that massage your whole body to the beat.

Short movie clip (500 KB)

 


What are "Audio Transducers"?

Basically, they're speakers, but without the paper cone that's used to push air towards your ears. Instead, you just bolt them to chairs / floors / cow-print covered collapsable platforms.

From http://www.electroshops.com/consumers/tactrans.htm:

Tactile sound is defined as sound or vibration that can be felt with the body. This sensory effect is facilitated by various nerve receptors located through out our body which sends electrical impulses to the brain. The human tactile sound bandwidth ranges from the subsonic, 20 Hz and below and sonic up to 800 Hz for most individuals and up to 2 or 3 kHz for hearing impaired individuals.

Studies have shown that most individuals are very sensitive to tactile sound and can detect a shift of as little of 1.8 Hz. This sensitivity approaches the acuity of the human ear which can detect shifts of 1 Hz. The human body is also very sensitive to small amplitudes of Tactile Sound such as feeling the refrigerator vibrating through our feet on the kitchen floor or the pulse of a heart beat through our finger tips. Tactile sound can be soft such as a babies breath against your cheek or as violent as a car wreck or nearby explosion.
We experience Tactile Sound in many activities including: talking, playing a musical instrument, driving a car or motorcycle, riding a roller coaster, flying an airplane, riding in an elevator, earthquakes, running water in the bath tub, shooting a gun, a door slamming shut, or when we are in contact with another person who is talking. Tactile Sound can be calming and gentle when playing an acoustic musical instrument or standing near a water fall or irritating and harmful if we are running a jack hammer or too close to an explosion.

Tactile sound transducers are used by major amusement parks, the military and now popular in home theater installations and live sound applications to transfer vibrational information directly into solid surfaces such as seating or floor structures. This method of transfer has many advantages over air transmission.


Back to more of Canton's projects...

 

Crema checks out the udderthump 2000. The cube to the right is a 500 watt solid state carver amplifier. (Neat, no noisy fans!)


"Thumper" transducers, bought in a liquidation sale for $8 each, are screwed to the underside of the thump platform at spots where they're most easily felt.