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Blind Get Wired - for Sight
Graz writes "MSNBC has an article about a blind guy that can navigate around obstacles using camera input into his brain." It's not much, but it's way better than nothing. Looks a little bit painful, though.
Update: See this ABC story with a slightly different take on the same subject.
I just looked back and realized that they said he had this implanted in 1978 -- Does that seem like an awful long time ago (for this sort of thing) to anyone else?
Not really. Ever since we realized the brain was electric, people have been stimulating it like mad and seeing what they can put in and take out. The fact that it's taken us this long to get this far should tell you something about how hard a problem it is. (Consider how much trouble we still have with the problem of computer vision. It's getting better, but it's nowhere near a solved problem, IMHO.)
If they could do a 10x10 pixel image back then, what are they capable of now?
Well, speaking as someone who's sort of part of they... a 10x10 pixel image. That's why this is news --- after two decades of trying, computer tech has finally gotten to the point where we can give Jerry useful input. However, the science of brain electrodes hasn't advanced that much. They're more durable now and often thinner, but in practice, we still probably wouldn't be able to sink nearly enough into Jerry's visual cortex to convey a complete visual image. (On the other hand, there is the example of the cat. However, that cat was never expected to have long-term survival.) We may be jacking in within our lifetimes, but it's not going to be as soon as you hope.
Alik Widge
MD/PhD Program
University of Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon