After being diagnosed with early onset hearing loss, London-based science writer Frank Swain, 32, was fitted with hearing aids in 2012.
From the first day he received the devices, Mr Swain said he was inspired to hack his hearing aids.
Two years later, and after receiving a grant from UK innovation charity Nesta, Mr Swain and sound artist Daniel Jones invented the “Phantom Terrains”, a new device that makes Wi-Fi signals audible.
The tool runs on Mr Swain's iPhone and picks up details about nearby signals, such as the router name, signal strength and distance, where each detail is given its own sonic tone that are streamed to his phone and then picked up by a special pair of Bluetooth-connected hearing aids.
To reveal what he produced, Mr Swain created a map and an audio to demonstrate what the internet sounds like from his walk around the BBC Broadcasting House in central London.
"The information is turned into sound on the phone. Distant signals are rendered as clicking beacons, while the strongest signals have their network ID turned into a looped melody. This audio is then streamed wirelessly over a Bluetooth connection to a pair of Starkey Halo hearing aids. These hearing aids are designed so that audio sent by Bluetooth can be blended with the normal output of the devices,” Mr. Swain explained in a statement with the Independent.
"In effect, I hear the Wi-Fi sound mixed into my normal hearing," he stated. He said: "We're reaching a new stage of how we interact with our devices. It's an excellent time to think about what tools we can build when we're in constant conversation with the machines around us."
On the personal level, he says the project helped him change his attitude to hearing loss.
"It was a big blow to learn I was going deaf at such a young age, but through this project I've seen that actually I can use the situation I'm in to my advantage, and explore abilities that nobody else gets to experience.”