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BrainPort Allows People To Reclaim Damaged Senses
Karma Star writes "There is a news article on a new device called a BrainPort, which is special device that
is worn like a helmet, with a strip of tape containing an array of 144 microelectrodes
hanging off the headset which is placed on the tongue. The BrainPort then sends signals
to the tongue which are then picked up by the brain, allowing the user to regain otherwise
lost sensory input.
More at the NY Times
(soul stealing subscription required)."
What if you lost your sense of taste?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
What if Im missing my sense of taste?
:)
Im sure having some gadget sticking in your mouth and a huge helmet on your head would make you a hit with the ladies too!
Seriously though.. I could see applications for this.
Picture this:
Fighter helmet with mouth piece that sits against the pilots tongue. When the computer detects a threat it can stimulate the pilots tongue in relation to the direction and distance of the target. After a little training this sort of thing would really increase reaction time.
Though it would make a conversation with the tower a bit tough
I'm a synaesthete myself, which is why I never tried any of the hallucinogenics-- I was always afraid I'd lose that wonderful crossing of the senses that I so enjoy.
I'm fortunate that my case is very mild; if it hadn't been for a number of conversations in early adolescence where I tried to describe something using adjectives that made perfect sense to me but not to others, I would never have known I'm different. In high school orchestra, most of the other kids could understand when I'd describe the sound of a viola as warm, or a piccolo as cold... but they'd have no idea what I meant when I started describing the grain of the viola sound (looks a lot like highly-polished oak under a tungsten lamp), or the brilliant white light of a b# played in second position on a violin's E string.
I read years ago in the Washington Post about a case of a fellow who was much more severely affected than I. Instead of seeing the sounds overlayed on the 'normal' visual field, and being able to easily distinguish what was seen with the eyes vs what was seen through hearing, his senses were so crosswired that this was no longer possible. The anecdote given in the story was that he stopped to buy something from a street vendor (ice cream, I think). But when the vendor spoke, his voice looked to the synaesthete like charcoal bricks falling out of the guy's mouth. The article said he hadn't been able to eat ice cream (or whatever the food was) since then. Like I said, I'm fortunate. My symptoms are thoroughly enjoyable & have never presented problems like that.
Allegedly real newspaper headline from 1998:
Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge
Similar to changing gears in a car. You don't sit there and think okay, the car is now in third gear, I must engage the clutch and then switch to fourth gear. The conscious mental process is just "upshift" and the body does the rest (or at least subcounscious portions of the nervous system.)
Same thing with writing and typing. I usually don't even think of the individual letters that I need to put down. I don't even deliberate over the words that I use. I just kinda think of the topic, and then my fingers move. When I want, I can then enact tighter control by switching my focus.
In fact, when typing, I usually don't even notice the keyboard, or most of the OS. Right now I guess I am thinking about interacting with this little box, not even noticing the rest of the page.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
You're absolutely right about calling B# & C the same thing-- I don't know what the heck I was thinking about. This just goes to show how out of practice I am at playing (and reading!) music for my viola.
Anyway, I'm interested in your challenge, but I don't understand what you mean by 'You have to tell me which version each recording represents'. As you pointed out, C and B# are the same thing. As far as finger position, I don't really care if it's fourth-finger in 1st position or 1st finger in 3rd position, it's still the same note with the same color and shape. No, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I don't claim to have perfect pitch-- or anywhere near it, for that matter, which is why I never went beyond high school orchestra.
As much as I love Vivaldi's Four Seasons, particularly the Presto from Summer, I can't really agree that the compositions you mention are visual at all. Beethoven's Egmont Overture has moments where it's extremely visual, but not those two.
Interestingly, one bit of music that always has the same visual dynamics for me isn't classical at all. It's Genesis' The Brazillian (the last track on Invisible Touch). I've tried to paint it and/or draw it a few times, but lack the talent to do so properly; the only description I can give of it is that it has the dynamics of a water show with the speed and versatility of a laser-light show. Listen to it some time when you have a spare three minutes (about all the time it takes to play it). There are certain auditory cues in the track that I actually see-- a synthetic drum playing a sound that I can only describe as looking like Edgerton's frozen milk-drop photograph, for instance (except not frozen in this case, just slow-motioned).
I have no ability to prove you wrong in your challenge that I see sounds. You have no way to prove me wrong when I assert that you see the color blue the same way I see the color red. So, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Allegedly real newspaper headline from 1998:
Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge