Research Proposal

Katelyn Pearson
Independent Research I
2017

Research Title: ​Feeling Sound: How Deaf People Perceive Vibrations

Overview of Research
● While there are a variety of mechanical aids for the deaf, little research has been
conducted in order to supplement their development. This research will focus on how
deaf people perceive vibrations on different locations of the body to supplement this
absence. The results will be applied to improve or create new aids to make life for deaf
people more comfortable.

Background and History of the Issue

● Inventions to aid the deaf have been developed for decades but rarely do the inventions
apply the use vibrations. When research to make a device to utilize vibrations was being
conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, it was overshadowed by the introduction of cochlear
implants. Recently, the majority of research has focused on visuals such as closed
captioning and sound to American Sign Language translators. Individuals have been
conducting research on deaf people focusing on tactile stimulation, but it is not the
majority of researchers’ subject of study.

Studies have been conducted to determine the sensitivity of the human body in the past;
however, these studies test the perception of hearing people. There has not been an
experiment to examine how deaf people perceive vibrations on different parts of their
bodies, though research has been done on the brain activity of deaf people and compared
to that of hearing people. It has been shown that deaf people are likely more sensitive to
tactile sensations than hearing people due to part of the auditory cortex being used to
process tactile sensations.

Problem Statement and Rationale

● The utilization of tactile stimulation has been underrepresented in deaf research because
of the focus on visible and audible influences, despite that somatosensory sensations are
also ingrained in Deaf culture. Despite this, the aids that have been developed can be
critical in a person’s life, and therefore research needs to be done on the placement of
vibrations in order to improve the devices’ comfort and effectiveness. This research
would help inventors decide what arrangement or location of vibrations would be most
efficient for the intended use of their product.

Research Methodology

● Research Question and Hypothesis

○ How can mechanical aids for the deaf that utilize vibrations be improved?
 ○ If vibrating motors are placed on the upper arm, lower arm, wrist, and back of
head of hearing impaired people and vibrated separately at various intensities,
then the back of the head will be the most sensitive, followed by the wrist and
then the lower arm followed by the upper arm.

● Basis of Hypothesis
○ Deaf people are more sensitive to vibrations than hearing people because the
human brain uses the unemployed auditory cortex to heighten other senses
including vision and feeling. Because of this elevated sensitivity, it is possible that
deaf people may perceive vibrations differently than hearing people, making it
necessary to test that group specifically. The locations to apply vibrations were
chosen because there could realistically be inventions that vibrate there. For
example, on the wrist watches could be used while on the arm armbands or
sleeves could be used. The back of head is predicted to be the most sensitive
because of the minuscule amount of flesh and hairiness, the wrist is predicted to
be the second most sensitive because it is boney but there is still flesh over it, and
the arm locations with as the least sensitive because of the fleshiness and muscle.

● Research Design
○ The research design is causal-comparative and a quasi-experiment will be
performed. Some factors of the experiment, including the age and gender of the
people tested, will not be able to be controlled due to limited resources. The data
collected will be both quantitative, from a survey asking the people tested to rank
how the vibrations felt on the different locations, and qualitative from questions
asked to the people tested asking them to describe what they experienced during
the test, including any additional factors that were not included on the survey.

● Operational Definitions
○ Deaf person:​ An individual who lacks the ability to hear sound sound to the point
of inability to sustain verbal conversation without aid.
○ Deaf community:​ A group of people that are deaf or are related to deaf people
who use sign language and share a culture unique to each community.
○ Perception of vibrations:​ How a person reports the comfort and intensity of
vibrations.

Product Overview
● The results of this study will be presented and judged at the Baltimore Science Fair in
2017. The submission will include a poster board that details the experiment and analyzes
the results. In addition to the judges viewing the presentation, the other science fair
participants and any family or friends who accompany them to the competition will be
able to view the board while it is on display.
Logistical Considerations
● When conducting an experiment as a student, especially one that involves human
participation, there are many obstacles and conditions to be met. Before anything,
permission to conduct the experiment needs to be obtained by the school board. After the
approval, the primary obstacle is finding people willing and able to participate in the
experiment. These people will be from the Howard County Association of the Deaf with
the help of Emily Dean who is fluent in American Sign Language. The experiment will
be conducted at Howard High School in a classroom. As for materials, vibrating motors
can be purchased for fairly cheap from companies online such as Precision Microdrives
or Amazon, the low cost allowing the motors to be bought by the researcher.