S3 Ep 055 Daniel Belquer Wants to Introduce You to The Art of Haptics

In this episode, Daniel Belquer discusses "The Art of Haptics." An innovation that which allows people of all hearing levels to experience music and art through the skin. 
S3 Ep 055 Daniel Belquer

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Show Notes

We are honored to have Daniel Belquer as our special guest. He is the co-founder of Music: Not Impossible and Vyblife, a company that started as a way to give the deaf community a better live music experience through vibrations on the skin. However, it quickly evolved into a new form of art called “The Art of Haptics,” which allows people of all hearing levels to experience music and art through the skin. 

Through this innovative technology, the skin becomes a new canvas for artistic expression, providing a unique and inclusive experience for everyone. Today, Daniel shares his insights on how technology can improve our health and well-being and the impact that “The Art of Haptics” can have on our lives.

S3 Ep 055 Daniel Belquer

In this episode, you will hear: 

  • What The Art of Haptics is and how it can improve our health. 
  • The evolution of Music: Not Impossible.
  • The difference in the perceptions of vibrations between the ear and the skin. 
  • The unique artistic space in the Art of Haptics. 
  • What vibrational experiences are and the desired effects they can cause. 
  • Music is a natural experience that anyone can learn.
  • Bridging the experience music gap between people of all hearing levels. 
  • The upcoming art of haptics course at Drexel University. 
  • The power of vibrational frequency 

Music: Not Impossible started as a way for the deaf to have a better live music experience through vibrations on the skin. It evolved into a new art form: The Art of Haptics. An experience for all regardless of hearing level having the skin as a new canvas for artistic expression.

Connect with Daniel Belquer:

Website: https://www.notimpossible.com/music-not-impossible 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicnotimpossible/ 

Email: [email protected] 

Connect with R Blank and Stephanie Warner: For more Healthier Tech Podcast episodes, and to download our Healthier Tech Quick Start Guide, visit https://www.healthiertech.co and follow https://instagram.com/healthiertech

Additional Links:

Transcript

Daniel Belquer 0:00
The Skin relates to vibrations and sound in general, in a completely different way than the US. And that’s what really like, you know, struck me like, as something to be understood as a separate idea. That’s why I went towards the art of haptics because it’s not a subset or a byproduct of music, but it’s an add on its own.

Announcer 0:25
Welcome to the healthier tech podcast, the show about building a healthier relationship with modern technology. Now, here are your hosts, R blank and Stephanie Warner.

R Blank 0:38
So, today’s interview with Daniel, I’m gonna keep this really short. This is by far the coolest technology we have ever covered on the healthcare tech Podcast. I’m really excited for listeners to to hear about Daniel and his project. I will say listen to the very end, for some reason for a really cool piece of information about tinnitus in particular, which I know is of interest to a lot of our listeners.

Stephanie Warner 1:04
Yeah, absolutely. It was. It was so inspiring. It was just the the work that he’s he’s doing is going to help a lot of people and yeah, it’s just listening to him talk about what he’s doing. He’s so passionate about helping people and about music. You guys are all gonna love it. So let’s, let’s let’s jump in. Yeah, let’s get into it.

R Blank 1:28
We are honoured to have Daniel Belka as our special guest. He is the co founder of music not impossible, and vibe life, a company that started as a way to give the deaf community a better live music experience through vibrations on the skin. However, it quickly evolved into a new form of art called The Art of haptics, which allows people of all hearing levels to experience music and art through the skin. Through this innovative technology, the skin becomes a new canvas for artistic expression, providing unique and inclusive experience for everyone. In this episode, he’ll be sharing his insights on how technology can improve our health and well being and the impact that the art of haptics can have on our lives. Welcome, Daniel, to the healthier tech podcast.

Daniel Belquer 2:16
Thank you so much. It’s great to be here with you guys.

Unknown Speaker 2:20
Yeah, we’re really excited for this.

R Blank 2:21
Yeah, no, this is, as we were prepping this episode. This is definitely the coolest tech, we have had have covered on this show. So oh, okay, I’m really looking forward to so but taking before we get into that, you have a background in, in music before these projects. Right. So what type of music do you work with? Did you work with and you know, when did you get started?

Daniel Belquer 2:47
So basically, I got started playing the piano when I was eight years old. But sooner, you know, I started like composing very early on. So I was always very, into creating music, original music. And I was also very interested in the combination between music arts, in general and technology, theatre, you know, and the combination of those, you know, art forms are different languages. So I started early on doing these combinations. And as I moved to Rio, as soon as I finished, I graduated in college. In law degree, by the way, yeah. Right, very late to the start, like you know, things from you know, real life stories. So, basically, I started teaching music at a theatre school. And I taught there for eight years and I started like directing my own shows and creating stuff. And also I was making a living as a composer, you know, for fresh, you know, Theatre Dance circus show. So I created all kinds of music you can imagine, like, music from Rene, Rene, Renaissance, you know, classical stuff, jazz, pop stuff, rock, like I got into several different genres because I would adapt to what it you know, it was demanded from composers perspective, to adapt to a particular show. And I was also putting on my own, putting out my own shows, combining the technologies. I was using brainwave scanners back in like 2012, grainy images in the background based on the performers, brainwave patterns using game controllers to, to control the system. So it was a very natural evolution, then they started like vibrating objects on stage because they wanted to create this kind of tactile approach to music. So that’s how I, you know, started going into that direction.

R Blank 4:53
That’s really cool. So, before we get actually into your tech, we’re going to be using this term called haptics now, more people are aware of this term than a decade ago because of tech, like, you know, the iPhone and most most phones. But just so we’re clear that all of our listeners understand what is what is haptics.

Daniel Belquer 5:13
So haptics is the is the technology that applies to the sense of touch. And to be technically precise, our project should be called vibrotactile. And for years, I try to push that. Why because haptics is a more encompassing term haptics, also include temperature, and pressure, texture, other stuff besides vibrotactile. So you know, thinking very technically, vibrotactile is a subset of haptics. But vibrotactile if haptics is already a niche term, you can imagine how you know, nobody could like what why don’t you know? No, it’s just haptics. Okay. So it’s easy for, you know, the general public to understand. So I adopted the term haptics to the practice

Speaker 4 6:01
that thank you for explaining that actually didn’t really know much about the word. Can you tell us a little bit more about the inspiration behind music not impossible, and how it evolved into the art of haptics?

Daniel Belquer 6:15
Absolutely. So when I moved to the United States, in 2014, I was working in intermediate centre called Harvest works in New York. And I was approached by you know, Patrick Hanlon, he’s an audio engineer for Hollywood movies and all. And he was also related to harvest storks. And we were just, we were introduced, and he said, there’s this company in California, they want to create a better life music experience for the death, you know, and the connection was done through Dr. Dave Petrino, which is a neuroscientist and has been a long time collaborator for not impossible labs. So basically, they said that, and at that point, you know, before i i left to pursue a, I got a master’s degree in theatre. And my thesis was around listening. So and I was already vibrating the objects as a mansion. So it was like very intrigued by the perspective of combining the vibrations, music and, and the death that seemed very intriguing to me. And then I got in touch with the CEO and founder of not impossible labs make Abilene and he had this idea like, oh, you know, it seemed preposterous at this time, you know, and age to, for the deaf to be having to hold balloons in concerts or being very fit, because he realised they they enjoy the live music is experienced, but they they seem far removed and having this makeshift solutions. So he was like, Oh, we have to find somebody to take on this project. And I jumped in, and it’s been, you know, nine years now. Wow, it’s crazy.

R Blank 7:52
Yeah. So yeah, let’s, let’s, let’s go back a little bit. Because I know there have been a few generations now, your technology. So the first thing that you would feel fits under the definition of music, not impossible, what did that do?

Daniel Belquer 8:09
So that was a very early prototype that Peggy and I had together, using, you know, vibrational speakers to the body and stuff like that. And it was horrible, as, you know, initial prototypes or any, any, it had like a very and desired effect of turning people into moving speakers. So, you know, the Deaf would be at a call centre, they’ll be producing a lot of sound and to be disruptive, I was like, This is not good. So the whole thing turned out to be much more challenging than I initially thought, because not from a technical perspective. You know, I own the third prototype, I got a very interesting technical solution runny, the problem was that it didn’t relate to the music experience at all, you know, at the time, people were saying, this is going to be the new Braille, this is going to be the new Morse code, people are going to learn it and they’re going to have a great eyes like Scratch that, you know, I think it’s a great idea to produce tactile language for the Deaf using vibrations, but that was not the, you know, in my scope, the first Morrow I put to, to guide me through this whole experience was there shall be no learning curve, you know, because from from a culture and artistic perspective, it seemed like completely crazy to me to think that they would, the Deaf would have to go through you know, a course like learning a language to to enjoy a music concert like it, you know, it doesn’t sound organic and natural because regardless of your culture, if you liked the type of music or not, you should be able to relate with it instantaneously. It’s a very primal connection. So this was the really hardcore challenged and it took me over a year to to overcome that.

R Blank 10:05
So in the first version of which you you describe as as under fulfilling it, you translate music into vibrations on the skin. And so I’m just trying to understand as an example, would a deaf person or hearing impaired to any degree, would they be able to tell the difference between a flute and a saxophone? Like, is there a difference in the vibration by two different instruments or

Daniel Belquer 10:37
so we would have to take a leap here, and jump right into the, the most recent iterations to discuss that. Because the problem is the skin relates to vibrations and sound in general, in a completely different way than the US. And that’s what really like, you know, struck me like, as something to be understood as a separate idea. That’s why I went towards the art of haptics, because it’s not a subset or a byproduct of music, but it’s an add on its own. And the easiest, the easiest example I can think of is think about silent movies, right? And then you add music to the movies, it makes the movies even more powerful. And actually, like, you know, it’s, it’s something so integral to the movie, movie, watching experience, right? Then you can, cannot even conceive silent movies anymore. So for me, the attaching vibrations to music adds as a booster, but it has a life of its own, the same way that we can separate movies and music. And we can separate the art of haptics from a musical experience. But when they are together, the combination is really strong. This is a long way of answering the question because the skin, for example, stops at 1000 hertz, technically, right? The Year goes to your word for white papers and science, but your ear goes up to 20,000 hertz. So you have 20,000, you know, 19,000 hertz more. So the range for these is way larger. And the way you produce the sound of a flute, and the sound of a saxophone for the year, you it’s a combination of waves and harmonics that create that particular sound. And you don’t have that same discrimination on the skin, it’s a difference because you feel like texture. So could you differentiate sound a from sound? B? Yes. But it would require in the same way as music training, right ear training. So for a layperson, to distinguish several instruments inside an orchestra and say, Oh, this is the violin, this is the flute, this is saxophone. This is the, you know, it’s it’s something that requires some learning and knowledge, right? And some training. So the same way with vibrations, you can distinguish stuff, but they’re not one per one, like all these, the flute is the sex. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s a little trickier, because you have to build a vocabulary for people to understand that.

R Blank 13:28
So now with the newer versions of the technology, you’re I don’t want to, well say it hacking directly into the brain. Right? Exactly. Yeah, so how, so this is interesting stuff. What Tell Tell, tell us more about what that is.

Daniel Belquer 13:47
So the skin is the largest organ of the body, right. And we have three basic receptors that react to vibrations in different frequency areas. And you have different perceptions in different areas of your body. For example, if you have a small ant, walking on your hand on your on the palm of your hand, you’re able to detect it with your closed eyes, you’re able to detect exactly where the end is. Because the hands are extremely sensitive to, you know, the sense of the church, not so much, let’s say on the back of your shoulders, for example. So the map of the regions of your body also have to be taken into account to produce striking and compelling vibrotactile or happ the art of haptics experience, because you have different ways of delivering different stuff to different parts of your body. So for example, if you need a lot of definition and detail, you would send to the wrist, you would send it to the you know your ribcage area here which is sensitive. But if you want to look really punchy stuff you send to the back because if you apply the same amount of power to your ribcage for example, it becomes the English or even painful, so you have to, you know, take this, it’s a different organ. So you take into account their specific characteristics and grades and create a new art form. But having said that, it is not that the skin is more limited than the year, it’s just completely different. So certain things, for example, location of sound, it’s hard to pinpoint the sound of the space exactly right. Especially if you have a lot of stuff happening at the same time. With the skin, the placement is very precise. And you can do a lot of interesting panning stuff on the body. So that’s why I call it our system 23.1 surround by the experience. So the same way you have a, you know, a 5.1 system in our home theatre or something. And then you can have, you know, separation of sound, different points of your room, or in a movie theatre for that matter. You can also have the same concept apply to the skin, so you can make a sensation of movement, right? That’s super cool. Yeah. And in the same way, you create the illusion of movement between the speakers, the sound is not actually moving, right? It’s a series of combinations of volumes and stuff that creates the illusion that somebody’s walking on your screen on a movie screen from left to right, you can create that illusion, you can create the same illusion on your skin, you know, that’s something moving across your body, which is super cool.

R Blank 16:24
So so I’m trying to figure out how to phrase this next question, right? Because what you’re talking about is, there’s a whole difference. I mean, like you say, the skin is different from the ears. And there’s a whole different set of variables, as a result that you get to work with levers that you can pull. So it sounds like the translation that you are doing is a very creative process, so that you as the inventor of the technology, or the executor of the technology, are actually getting to put your creative hands in. So you have the artist who’s making music that’s creative. And then you have the listener, and you’re kind of in the middle now as a second set of creative hands in terms of how this stuff is interpreted. Am I seeing that, right? Is that how you see your music, or your

Daniel Belquer 17:19
I’m very glad that you put it this way, because that’s exactly the point, it becomes an art form in itself. So you have the Creator. So we call it vibrant composers, vibrant DJs. So vibrant designers. So these people can create, you can acquire the skill set to create a very strong and interesting, compelling experience that can leverage the musical elements, but it’s not, you know, tied to it. So

R Blank 17:51
so it’s not just like, there’s the music. And then there’s your tech, there’s also, again, lack of a better term, maybe but an interpretive composer, and then customise the experience.

Daniel Belquer 18:05
Yes, I would even put, you know, because on your, on your analogy, you put the composer of the music and then the listener, or the executor of the music for that matter, like a music player, singer, you know, whatever it is, that is delivering the music form. And the listener, then then this vibro artists, so to speak, in between, I wouldn’t put them in between, I would put him or her in the same level as the musical artist. You said I’m saying. So at the same way, the musical artist is delivering the music experience, the vibrational or haptic artist is delivering this haptic experience. And they then they blend together in the end, they create a third thing that is larger than the sum of its parts. And this is the art of haptics and it’s amazing. And so we have an idea, sometimes we have the same piece, you know, given to, let’s say three or four vibro composers, and they all create completely different solutions. The results are completely different experience for the end user. It’s completely different. Some are more jarring and you know agitated and you know Bz, some of them are very, you know, minimalistic, and so you have unlimited numbers, number of variations you could create for each

Speaker 4 19:30
piece. That’s really interesting. Yes, go ahead.

Daniel Belquer 19:34
No, that’s why I’m really claiming the space of the art of haptics or as a legit legitimate artistic space. Because it’s not like some pipe that you put music in and it’s it comes on the other side, ready to go with vibrations because you have to do a number of artistic decisions in the process. Less just to give a concrete example last year We had a project with opera Philadelphia. And I didn’t compose just the music, I thought of the vibrations before the music even. And I had the pleasure of working with the Philadelphia opera women’s chorus who recorded the music. And then I have a vibro composer created the vibrations for my musical piece based on my you know, guidance, but he, you know, also had, you know, free range on the piece. But the other two pieces, they involve the piano, one was chamber orchestra. And and the third one was with just a solid piano with voice, very operatic beautiful pieces. By the Shawn. Sorry, here in Philadelphia, one was delivered to Danny Dunlap in LA, and the other for site two, in England. So that the way they treated the piano in both pieces, vibrational wise was night and day was completely different. And they’re both equally strong and interesting. But they went through completely different paths. Then He then left because his piece was solo, solo piano, he felt the need to be very precise with each envelope of each note and place them in different places of the body. So you have this evolution, as the piece, you know, becomes bolder, the vibration starts spreading across your body, it’s super interesting. sigh because he was dealing with a chamber orchestra with piano who decided to place the piano on the wrists, you know, and because of the acuity. So the piano stays there the whole time. It’s very cool. It’s very, it’s just an example of a different solution.

Stephanie Warner 21:42
Yeah, no, that sounds really interesting. So and we’ve talked about, you know, the music, the person creating the music, we’ve talked about the haptic artists. But on the other side of things, how does the user experience this? And do they experience it differently? Because what I hear I’m trying to get, like, imagine this, and I think about, you know, all these vibrations happening on my body. And then I think about it makes me feel like I’m going to be tickled. And I wonder, you know, how do people experience this? And then are you taking into account if you know, half of the audience is laughing? Because they’re feeling tickled? You know, how do you how do you deal with the user? And how do they handle it? And then how do you deal with it in real time?

Daniel Belquer 22:23
So let’s say Tico, it’s going to be the comedic effect, like you know, a sound that you can make like popcorn, popcorn clown, and people know, they have to laugh, you know, but it’s a desired effect. And you can, you can avoid it if you want. Not all vibrations are ticklish, right, you can go to different frequencies. And so there is a bunch of ways you can create a non ticklish vibrational experience. So I went to I was just two weeks ago, I was in Melbourne, Australia, working with a studio there and teaching them how to, you know, create the art of happiness. Actually, this weekend, I have another workshop online, with 26 people from like, several time zones in there all participating vibro composers. So you can create, you know, you can totally focus on the desired effect. And, and a funny thing was when I was there, I told them, we have a standard reaction. When people experience this for the first time, they always go, they go.

R Blank 23:30
For our listeners, mouth agape just wide open, that was the MGIS,

Daniel Belquer 23:35
like, surprise dice. So it’s a standard. And I told them, they’re going to be you know, that was the standard of reaction. And when they turned the system on, they all made this same face. And it was like a soldier like, Oh, my God, you know, it’s so because they the the few, oh my god, it’s happening my body. So I think some, you know, possible analogy would be the invention of the speakers, right? So let’s take speakers to coaches that are not familiar with the speaker, right? Like how can you explain the sound is coming from a box, right? It’s very hard to describe, right? It’s insanely hard to describe. And so the musicians are inside the box. And what is this frog doing that? No, it’s not here. But anyways, try rival it’s extremely hard. Because we like the metaphors. We like the references to understand the experience. So people when they have the experience for the first time, they are, they are very surprised. And one thing that we learned over the years is that if we compare it to music and say, Oh, some people, they are naturally inclined to music, you know, and some are not, which doesn’t mean that people cannot learn music. Anybody can learn music. It’s a very natural experience. We have rhythm, we have the melody or even as we speak, but for some people, it’s easier. So these people who have the easier path to Music Learning, for example, they are equivalent for, you know, with the deaf community, because they have so much sensory acuity in general, that they get the experience much faster, they understand what’s happened, they can pinpoint, you know, subtle changes way quicker than a hearing person. So one very interesting outcome of the project is that we also empower the Deaf community to be creators, because, you know, they can totally know what they are doing with the system, right? Because they are using the sense of touch, and they can have like a headstart, because they get things like that. It’s very quick.

R Blank 25:43
So I saw, I think I saw on your site, that your tech was part of the life is beautiful festival, is that. Okay, so, as a former last vagan, I have a very positive view of that festival. I was hoping you could speak a little bit about that experience, how did it how is it implemented? How was it deployed? What was the results?

Daniel Belquer 26:08
So that was one of the most striking experiences in my life. At the end of the event, I was so exhilarated by the whole situation, that when they gave me the mic and sets, say, you know, Daniel, MC, call me on stage and like, Go, so please, you know, talk and speak about, you know, how you feel? And I just said, Hi, you know?

R Blank 26:31
And how did that translate into haptics? Yeah.

Daniel Belquer 26:36
Because it was such a beautiful thing, because for years, we have been envisioning a day where we would have a room with half the deaf people and half hearing, and you couldn’t tell the difference. And that’s exactly what happened. And we were fortunate enough in this, you know, it’s also due to MCs, amazing relationship skills, and all, because we were sponsored by examples, you know, the, the shoe company in Vegas, you know, well, Tony Shea, and you know, we’re extremely thankful for the whole team, and also Avnet. So basically, Avnet is the second world’s largest electronic parts distributor. And they have, you know, they they do they distributed like 100 billion bytes per month, right, which is like, what, 18,000 engineers on staff, so they basically opened the doors of happiness to me and said, Daniel, what do you need to create this in six months? It’s like, what, six months? Yeah. We have you know, these prototypes? No, we need more prototypes, and they have to be amazing. So, really, yeah, I need this company. And in the, you know, industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay, you get you got it. So go have fun. It’s like, seriously. So now we have, we have this prototypes that we have been working with the last five years. And this was generated due to that event. Through the law. Yeah, for the launch of Greta Van Fleet, debut album, and actually, they want the best album, Rock Album of the Year at the Grammys at that. So it was really cool. It was a wonderful journey.

R Blank 28:15
So going from there, how are people actually able to enjoy the art of haptics? Meaning? Do they have to be at an event that supports it? Or is there a way for people to just buy one and and, you know, tune into a channel or an app that you have?

Daniel Belquer 28:32
So right now, our CES last year, I completely changed the business model to be an I turned us into like a service company. Because up to that point, we were like project based, right? So we would have these big events like Lady Gaga, we did her dive bar launch tour in Nashville. And so we would have these massive events and the you know, life is beautiful, and all and then we would go and tweak and perfect and improve and go back and basically doing demos in between. But since 2022, yeah, we started really focusing on, on on providing the services and the hardware and the technical and everything like basically a one stop shop for the art of haptics for companies. And we just had like a huge surge. We had many, many events. Last year, we went to Japan, you know, worked with Toyota, they invited us to go back this year again, and actually creating the art of haptics for car racing. So I was basically mixing vibrational music with no sound and the cars that would pass by they loved it, you know? Yeah, we went to London for a mighty hoopla festival like a 25,000 people Music Festival. Anyways, we started like doing this. But we are basically now tied to a small inventory, right because this was created for you know, just you know, a couple of Under the prototypes. So now we are full on into our mass production initiative. Actually, I had a call yesterday from our engineering in China and you know, he’s putting up the factories and everything. So we can go to mass production, that will remove the, the amount, the quantity limitation, but we’re still going to be working with companies and events and artists to distribute, you know, specifically at a physical events that people will attend. And then we are the organiser of the event retrieves the units. Because I think we’re still a few years away of going straight to the end user due to the, because I don’t want to settle for like a gimmicky experience. You know, so we are working with, for example, I have our headquarters here in Philadelphia, with Dr. Jung Mukim, from excite centre with Drexel University. And they’re working with an AI component. So we put music in and it pipes a very compelling experience, you know, based on on what We have provided as composers feed so they can analyse that. So, you know, obviously, this takes time. But we can see that obviously, like in the future being like a very interesting, you know, experience for people to collect, because I just don’t want to, like just have the base or something, you know, I want to have like an interesting experience for people. So that’s why we still go through the, the events Avenue. And actually, I’m starting in the fall, the first the art of haptics course at Drexel University as a gentle adjunct professor. So we’re going to start teaching other composers to create with the system. And I would also like to thank my my great collaborator and coworker, flavanones Loski. Because she has been, like crucial in this whole path to turning music and writing paths with this. No accessible business.

Speaker 4 32:05
Right. So how do you think that haptic technology can improve the overall health and well being of individuals?

Daniel Belquer 32:17
I would have to put my esoteric side

R Blank 32:20
hat, please proceed, because it’s

Daniel Belquer 32:23
at what you guys cannot believe what I have been seen. It’s so crazy. So you have an idea that right now we have spinal cord injury trial going on in Los Angeles with one of the most regarded specialists in the world. Dr. Reggie Edgerton, he was actually the, the doctor that used to help Christopher Reeve, you know, when he had the horse accident, so he, and he’s very excited about that. I was able to work with Jesse Norman before she passed, and she was paralysed from the waist down. Just remember, for those of you who are not familiar, she’s one of the world’s most celebrated. She was finally she passed two years ago. But she was one of the most regarded opera singers. And after a few months, she was moving her legs 14 inches using vibrational therapy. We have and this was certified by Mount Sinai, a series of therapists It wasn’t me who actually measured the result was really, really exciting. We have people working with cognitive load in Boston, MIT and Lahey clinic. We had trials going well with Parkinson’s patients. So there’s, I think this can because it’s non invasive. We haven’t seen any adverse effects yet. So it’s really really exciting. I actually helped a lady with tinnitus once creating like a tensile frequency technique. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I had this video actually like she’s because we were in this Parkinson’s event. And I had this young lady she was really fartist probably and and she just sat on the floor and they got very moved you know, said I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had Parkinson’s. You know, as a volunteer. She was actually a volunteer at the event. So they don’t have Parkinson’s. But I have tinnitus and it drives me crazy I you know, it gets severe nausea and right now it’s just getting me dizzy. So basically I applied one of the devices to her ear you know and have some like oh tell me when the frequencies right and stuff like that. And suddenly she starts to cry and cry

R Blank 34:43
after the yeah this recording if you could please send us that link to the to that video because we are asked about tinnitus

Unknown Speaker 34:51
all the time. Yeah, yeah.

R Blank 34:54
By our listeners and our customers so that if you make sure to add Yeah,

Daniel Belquer 34:58
yeah, I have to add scary because this was, you know, not an official video on my phone. But if he’s she’s fine in disclosing her identity and or it can blow her face whatever she feels like I still have a

R Blank 35:11
really cool, thank you. Yeah. What advice I mean, you’re obviously very creative person and not not just in the traditional way but in, in seeing opportunities for the use of technology to create value and benefit and enjoyment for other people. What advice would you give to someone who is hearing you and is super inspired, and they want to devote their lives to applying innovative technologies to improving people’s lives? What advice would you give that person on what to do what steps to take what path how to think of a path to follow?

Daniel Belquer 35:52
I don’t know if my if my recipe would apply, you know, to other people, but I can speak from my perspective, right. So I don’t sound like I, you know, figured out because I didn’t, I just something that works for me. I’m extremely obsessive with stuff. And I’m Anna and I don’t have any problems with failing and admitting failure, I have zero issues with that. And I actually think it’s a beautiful thing, I like things that are half finished. And I appreciate to see a lot of potential stuff that people just think it’s like a, you know, like a napkin, sketch or something. So I think if you if you are a buyer of the the results that we get is due to just being you know, insisting and trying again, and falling, it’s part of, it’s fun, actually, you know, once you get the, the, the taste for the actual process, instead of just like, oh, this has to be perfect, I need to make this as the new, you know, spaceship or something, no, just, you know, try one thing, then, you know, once you figure that out, go to the next one, and then start building block by block things that actually make sense. And can help Enosh obviously, I inspired by, you know, caring about people liking to see people being, you know, getting benefits, this is such a huge and, and, and rewarding, you know, relationship, you see, like people crying and getting so happy, like the Deaf community has been outstanding, like the experiences I have had with them over the years is just brings tears to my eyes, because it’s so wonderful. So if you if you if you feel rewarded by you know, feeling the energy of other people’s, you know, getting their life stretch, or improved or even amused, you know, for a few moments, I think that’s the, that makes everything worth it. And you and you cannot have you cannot lose the press, you know, the perspective, whenever you are too much on the weeds of frustration and things not working at all, or getting, you know, on fire or exploding or because this does happen sometimes. So yeah, I actually have a veto might, you know, like with a fire extinguisher in the back of not impossible?

R Blank 38:25
I’d like that idea to but well, Daniel, this has been a really fantastic interview. It’s, I mean, like I said earlier on, this is by far the coolest technology we have covered on the healthcare tech podcast, but the way in which you’ve spoken about it is incredibly inspiring. So I just I really want to thank you for taking the time to come on, on the show. Where is where would you like our listeners to find out more about you or connect with you?

Daniel Belquer 38:57
So let’s make it simple. Florida at not impossible. labs.com F Fil A VI A?

R Blank 39:06
Okay, great. And I will, and I will, we’ll make sure that those are in the show notes. Absolutely. So yeah, thank you again. This is really just been fantastic.

Speaker 4 39:16
Yes. Firing super. Yeah, absolutely love the work you’re doing. And I would I would really love to experience it for myself. But I’m waiting for

R Blank 39:25
the demo unit that I was promised. Just booking No, no, no, I asked him. Yeah. And

Daniel Belquer 39:33
I love to you know, I’m doing demos as part of our daily operation. So I’m happy to give you guys a demo. Where are you guys located?

R Blank 39:44
We’ll cover that off here. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Belquer 39:48
Not a problem. So yeah, and in November, I’m gonna be releasing my album, you know, my songs. It’s going to be the first hour in completely the art of enabled with the aid of haptics, so

R Blank 40:06
super cool. We’ll have you on again for listening.

Unknown Speaker 40:09
Awesome. That’d be actually really fun.

R Blank 40:14
Well, thank you again, Daniel. And yeah, this has been great. Thanks.

Daniel Belquer 40:18
Thank you have a good one. Cheers. Cheers. Bye bye, guys.

Announcer 40:23
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the healthier tech podcast. Remember to check the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in the show. Please like and subscribe to the healthier tech podcast on Apple, Spotify or your podcast platform of choice. Get your free quickstart guide to building a healthy relationship with technology and our latest information at healthier tech.co

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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R Blank

R Blank

R Blank is the founder of Healthier Tech and the host of “The Healthier Tech Podcast”, available iTunes, Spotify and all major podcasting platforms.

R has a long background in technology. Previously, R ran a software engineering firm in Los Angeles, producing enterprise-level solutions for blue chip clients including Medtronic, Apple, NBC, Toyota, Disney, Microsoft, the NFL, Ford, IKEA and Mattel.

In the past, he served on the faculty at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering where he taught software engineering, as well as the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He has spoken at technology conferences around the world, including in the US, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands, and he is the co-author of “AdvancED Flex Development” from Apress.

He has an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and received his bachelor’s degree, with honors, from Columbia University. He has also studied at Cambridge University in the UK; the University of Salamanca in Spain; and the Institute of Foreign Languages in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Connect with R on LinkedIn.

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