The Machinery of Gravity

David Franklin was born in Brockton, MA in 1932, and studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Vermont before transferring to New York University to study Physics. He received his undergraduate degree in physics, then continued graduate studies in physics and electronics at night school while working at the Naval Applied Science Laboratory in Brooklyn, NY. He continued to work at that facility for the next eleven years as a physicist/engineer. He then transferred to MIT where he began his work in sensory substitution (funded by Naval Research Laboratories) that was to occupy him for the next 30 years. In 1982 he and his wife founded Audiological Engineering Corporation, while continuing to work with MIT on their studies of tactile communication methods.

David Franklin is best known for his work designing and developing wearable tactile aids for the deaf and other related products. His work was extensively supported by grants from NIH under the SBIR program from 1982 through 2005 as well as from other government agencies. During this same period, he served as a peer reviewer for the SBIR/NIH initiative. He was an invited speaker before The US Congress in support of the SBIR Program.

He headed a consortium between his company, MIT, and Brandeis University, to develop methods and technology for utilizing tactile interfaces for control of rotary winged aircraft to obviate undesired interactions between vision and a pilot's balance perceptions due to disturbance of the inner ear (semi-circular canals). The project demonstrated the feasibility of substituting tactile sensory inputs for vision in controlling fixed wing aircraft in flights carried out at The Naval Air-station Pensacola, Florida, work funded by DOD.

He holds six US and foreign patents and his inventions have been used around the world both in the hearing industry and in consumer products.

Preparation for this present book involved extensive self-study beyond the physics he learned as a student many years ago.

He is married, has three children and six grandchildren. His hobbies include cooking, carpentry, woodworking, hiking, fishing, and anything that involves a forest or bodies of water. He used to be a great aficionado of chainsaws and wood splitting devices, but age has robbed him of those pleasures.