SUMMARY
Initially interested in ambient sound and its impact on humans, I sought to understand the relationship between ambient sound and people’s state of mind. Undergoing an intensive research process, I conducted a series of interviews, field observations, and desk research to understand how people were engaging with ambient sound. I ultimately discovered a stakeholder group with an abnormal relationship with ambient sound: those with tinnitus. With no medical treatment, and a lack of available tinnitus focused sound therapy, I realized that people with tinnitus were in need of a truly empathetic solution that addressed their complex symptoms.
challenge
With tinnitus being a condition with no proven effective medical treatments, sufferers often resort to sound therapy solutions to mask their tinnitus or distract from it. I realized that the current sound therapy market was not tinnitus-centric, as most available sound therapies were blanket solutions that were not tailored to tinnitus-sufferer’s pain points. Herein lies the massive gap for technologically advanced, accessible, and adaptive tinnitus-centric sound therapy.
Outcome
The outcome of this semester long project is the generative functional music platform, TheraGen. Pairing an interface that allows users to provide real-time feedback and a generative music program that creates infinitely long pieces of sound therapy, TheraGen addresses specific tinnitus pain-points that have not yet been addressed in the current sound therapy market.
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