PHOTOS (LEFT) BY MAGGIE STEBER/VII/REDUX; (RIGHT) COURTESY OF NOT IMPOSSIBLE LABS
The Retain, Recall, Interpret mobile application, accessible from Caitlin’s smartwatch, will eventually replace her
current reminder system of adhesive notes.
allowing us to take the training wheels off in some cases,” Marathay says.
In November 2019, Infinite Options presented the prototype to the full Memory: Not
Impossible team, which green-lit the development of a working model for tryouts in
spring 2020. “We have high hopes,” says Ebeling, “but have learned from experience
that refinements are inevitable.”
MUSIC: NOT IMPOSSIBLE
Another project in progress helps hearing-impaired individuals experience the pleasures
of music through skin sensations. A key contributor is Daniel Belquer, a Brazil-born theater
artist interested in the intersection of art, science, and technology, and who received the 2019
Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award. His graduate thesis in experimental theatre at UNIRIO in
Rio de Janeiro examined the effects of unusual vibrations on the audience experience.
Ebeling heard about Belquer’s work and sought out his involvement in Music: Not
Impossible.
Given his background in the effects of vibration on the human body, Belquer explored
a haptics-based technology: He cut his shirt and trousers into straps, and asked a
seamstress at a local dry cleaner in Brooklyn, where he lived, to sew a series of wires
connecting the haptic actuators at 24 points.
Each actuator produces a “buzz” that changes in texture according to the frequency
and amplitude of a particular piece of music. Altogether, more than 250 different
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