What is the name of your organization?
SoundX
What is the name of your solution?
Numéro Un
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
SoundX is an innovative company that designs, develops, and deploys inclusive solutions on a global scale.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Paris, France
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
France
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Deafness is a largely invisible disability, often misunderstood or overlooked by society. While sound is omnipresent for most people, it remains foreign to those who are deaf or hard of hearing, often leading to social exclusion. Globally, nearly 500 million people live with disabling hearing loss, including 34 million children (a number expected to rise to 1 in 10 people by 2050). Yet, current educational systems offer very few ways for these learners to engage meaningfully with sound, rhythm, and language (key elements in cognitive, emotional, and social development). Traditional music programs rarely accommodate deaf students beyond basic rhythm, and speech training often lacks effective tools to support phoneme distinction. This contributes to a cycle of exclusion, where children miss out on creative expression, collective learning, and linguistic development. Our solution directly addresses this gap by offering accessible tools that translate sound into physical sensations, enabling deaf learners to engage with music, language, and group learning in new and meaningful ways.
What is your solution?
Project Numéro Un is an inclusive sound experience designed for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. We developed an app powered by artificial intelligence that translates surrounding sounds into real-time vibrations, allowing users to physically feel music and everyday sounds. By using a connected backpack or simply holding the smartphone in the hand, users can sense the rhythm, intensity, and variation in sound, not just the beat. This multisensory translation enables the deaf community to actively participate in music education, collective play, and even speech training, where feeling sound patterns helps with phoneme distinction. Built in close collaboration with the community, the app is shaped by their feedback and daily experiences. What started as a tool for musical inclusion has grown into a broader educational and sensory aid, helping the community to better understand the world around them.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Numéro Un is designed first and foremost for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, especially children and young adults who often don’t have access to music or language learning in the same way as hearing peers. Our solution enhances language acquisition, phoneme recognition, and musical expression, core elements of cognitive and emotional development. At the National Institute for Deaf Children in Paris, one teacher shared: “I can now help my students understand all the intricacies of the words, the melodies - just life!”. We’re now working to bring this to more schools and cultural spaces worldwide (concert halls, museums, cultural centers...), providing our audience access to venues that have long excluded them. By offering an inclusive, multi-sensory bridge to sound, we help promote belonging, well-being, and creative empowerment for communities historically left out of traditional learning environments. Additionally, the solution has shown calming, therapeutic effects for individuals with autism, sensory processing disorders, or high stress levels.
