February 2016

Synesthesia Suit

Rez Infinite

Rez Infinite - Synesthesia Suit

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A synesthetic suit capable of augmenting the visio-auditory sensory experiences in the VR video game “Rez Infinite” with the sense of touch.

The suit is internally equipped with 26 actuators that vibrate along with the music and make the human body a conduit for soundwaves. The vibrations come in a variety of textures, allowing the wearer a visceral experience of stringed instruments and drums being played. The suit also contains LEDs. These colors and light patterns synchronize with the vibrations, thereby allowing others to visualize the wearer’s tactile experience. Whereas players tend to immerse themselves in solitary VR experiences, this suit allows others in the room to share in the experience.

The Media Ambition Tokyo 2016 venue was also designed to include lights and vibrations, in order to extend the “Synesthesia Suit’s” multimodal senses into the space itself. In this sense, it was also an experiment to reflect the VR corporeal experience into a venue space.

CREDIT

Rez Infinite - Synesthesia Suit

  • Artist : Tetsuya Mizuguchi + Rhizomatiks + Keio Media Design
  • Creative Director : Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Resonair), Seiichi Saito (Rhizomatiks)
  • Producer/Planner : Fumihiko Sato (Rhizomatiks)
  • Technical Director/Developer : Tomoaki Yanagisawa (Rhizomatiks)
  • LED Suit Designer/Developer : Tomoaki Yanagisawa (Rhizomatiks), Toshihiko Sakurai (SQUNABICONA)
  • LED Suit Device Developer/Programmer : Hideaki Tai (Rhizomatiks)
  • LED Suit System & Lighting Pattern Developer : Ishii 2bit (buffer Renaiss)
  • LED Suit Device Development Support : Toshitaka Mochizuki (Rhizomatiks)
  • Haptic Suit Developer : Keio Media Design, JST ACCEL Embodied Media Project
  • Haptic Suit Designer : Toshihiko Sakurai (SQUNABICONA)
  • Audio System Developer : Shintaro Kamijo (Rhizomatiks)
  • Suit Development Support : Takahito Hosono (Rhizomatiks)
  • Space Design/Construction : Propeller & Co.,Inc.
  • Rez Infinite
  • Creative Direction : Tetsuya Mizuguchi
  • Lead Programming : Osamu Kodera
  • Development : Monstars + Resonair
  • Original Development : United Game Artists
  • ©Enhance Games 2016, SEGA 2001
  • Video : Muryo Homma (Rhizomatiks) , Keiya Ando
  • Photo : amana, un