# holoesthesia

> holoesthesia shows what a word feels like. Type any word or short phrase and it becomes a living 3D form
> with its own colours, motion, light and music, rendered live in your web browser. It is synesthesia as a
> web app: "diamond" turns into a hard, faceted, glittering shape with bright bells; "pure love" into
> something soft, warm and slow. Free to use for every word already imagined, no sign-up.

- Website: https://holoesthesia.com/
- Try it: https://holoesthesia.com/feel
- Made by k0ba (https://k0ba.com)
- Powered by Jev, a decision model, and Laya AI (open source, by Nandakishor M, https://laya.convaiinnovations.com/)

## What it does

- **A word becomes a world.** Each word gets a form (solid, edges, symmetry, texture, proportions), a
  colour palette, a background atmosphere, a frame, a way of moving and a piece of procedural 8-bit
  music (tempo, mode, groove, instrument).
- **Decided, not generated.** A decision model (Jev) answers 44 fixed questions about how the word feels,
  such as "sharp or soft?", "which colours?", "fast or slow?". The browser turns those answers into
  geometry, colour, motion and sound with three.js and Web Audio. No image or video model is involved,
  so a word renders instantly, at any resolution, and costs a fraction of a cent the first time it is
  ever asked; after that it is free for everyone.
- **Consistent.** The same word always gets the same answers, so "ocean" looks and sounds like "ocean"
  every time, for every visitor. You can switch between takes of a word, and one is chosen as the default.
- **Built up one sense at a time.** The landing page shows it step by step: shape, then colour, then music,
  then everything else.

## Who it is for

- **Curious people:** see how words like "fear", "honey", "thunder" or your own name feel.
- **Podcasters and speakers (coming soon):** a talk drawn live. Every keyword becomes a form, right on time.
  A three-hour talk is about 230 KB of data instead of about 4 GB of HD video.
- **Musicians (coming soon):** a lyric visualiser that reads the words and moves on the beat.
- **Web designers and brands (coming soon):** an editor to tune a word's form, colour and sound, embed it in
  a website, or download it as video, GIF or audio.
- **Teachers and researchers:** a playful way to talk about synesthesia, sound symbolism and how language
  carries feeling.

## Pricing

- **Free, no sign-up:** every word already in the archive (hundreds of words and growing). A word nobody has
  tried yet is saved, and you are offered three similar words that are ready now.
- **Free account (coming soon):** sign in with Google or GitHub and imagine 20 new words of your own.
- **Early bird, $6.90 (coming soon):** 999 new words a day and priority access to new features. There is a
  waitlist on the site.

## Examples

- https://holoesthesia.com/feel#diamond
- https://holoesthesia.com/feel#pure%20love
- https://holoesthesia.com/feel#white%20tiger
- https://holoesthesia.com/feel#bee
- https://holoesthesia.com/feel#elephant

## FAQ

- **What does "holoesthesia" mean?** "Holo-" (whole) plus "-esthesia" (sensation), as in synesthesia: a word
  felt with all the senses at once.
- **Does it work on phones?** Yes, in any modern browser with WebGL, on desktop and mobile.
- **Is it AI art?** No pictures are generated. A model makes small, explainable decisions about a word, and
  code draws the result, so every form is live, smooth and reproducible.
- **Is my typing private?** Words are counted, and a new word is saved so it can be imagined later; nothing
  else about you is kept without an account or a waitlist email.
- **Can I use it commercially?** The editor, embeds and exports are coming soon; join the waitlist on
  https://holoesthesia.com/ to hear first.