Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte may flash a diamond-studded, patriotic grill when he smiles from the winner’s podium, but artist Aisen Caro Chacin can use hers to listen to Public Enemy. Play-A-Grill, a project she developed at Parsons The New School for Design, transmits music through the wearer’s teeth to the inner ear.
To create it, Chacin embedded the electronics from an MP3 player, an amplifier circuit, and a motor into a wax mold of her upper mouth. The motor drives vibrations from the MP3 player, controlled with the tongue, into the cochlea, where they’re translated as sound.