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Headband Gives Wearer "Sixth-Sense"
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist reports on a headband developed at the University of Tokyo that allows the wearer to feel their surroundings at a distance — as if they had cats whiskers. Infrared sensors positioned around the headband vibrate to signal when and where an object is close. There are also a few great videos of people using it to dodge stuff while blindfolded."
Augmentation of existing senses has been going on for some time now. In particular, there is a very interesting project running through the Office of Naval Research using Navy Seals and a tongue prosthetic designed to impart sonar information to the tongue using electrical stimulii. Technology like this is very cool stuff that at the very least will help with mission specific tasks, but even better allows folks who have one or more senses compromised to continue to function and navigate their worlds.
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How do I go about http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/perception/HapticRadar/index-e.htmldodging stuff?
My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
Oh and since Daddypants did not read emails prior to hitting publish here is the fixed link for TFA.
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Haley Joel Osment was unavailable for comment.
This sounds like it could be useful for visually impaired people. I know a lot of people that are blind or nearly so, and for those that aren't completely blind they say that depth perception is the hardest part, though they can usually see that there is an object somewhere. Also, maybe this could replace those canes that blind people are constantly tapping around everywhere with.
A sixth sense, that is. It's called the sense of balance. Why is this never included in the senses list?
This looks promising for people who are blind. IF they can increase the resolution of it would be wonderful.
I have a sixth sense--the ability to detect unlinked URLs in summaries. Too bad ScuttleMonkey doesn't seem to have this one...
This guy's the limit!
This will prove invaluable on construction sites. I can't count the number of times I've had to duck a board being swung wildly by my co-worker Curly, only to have the board hit me on the back of the head on the return trip when he turns to face the other direction. This device would completely prevent this type of common construction accident.
That's SERIOUS.
It requires some SERIOUS removal of the SERIOUSLY SERIOUS "dodge" at the end.
http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/perception/HapticRadar/index-e.html
Crisis adverted. Stand down red alert.
I once thought I had a sixth sense while wearing a headband. It turns out it was just on too tight.
Now shrink it, and implant it in my cranium. I'll also take my embedded GPS and compass, accelerometer, laser rangefinder, light spectrometer, infrared/thermal vision, visual magnification, cochlear implant that records everything I hear/say, wireless Internet connection, and optical nerve tie-in for the interface. And hardened ceramic teeth that can be polished clean with fine-grit polishing compound. You have your mission, scientists. Go.
OK cool, but... how fashionable a headband are we talking?
You can have my cynical agnosticism when you pry it from my cold, dead logic.
I made almost exactly the same thing at Towson University last semester with a research grant. I have a Daventech SRF04 ultrasonic rangefinder mounted on a baseball cap which is polled by an Acroname Brainstem PIC module. That data is averaged over a short time and sent out to a servo that is strapped to the user's palm. The end result is that the servo presses against the user's palm with a pressure inversely proportional to the distance read by the rangefinder. It really does work very well, it's very responsive and it's not too dificult to at least avoid bumping into things. The only problem is that it's not in stereo; I would eventually like to add more rangefinders and more servos. The other problem is that the user has to move their head around constantly to get distance information; I talked this over with a blind friend of mine and he suggested that the sensor be mounted on the hand or wrist along with the servo, this way it's a little more intuitive and less cumbersome/dorky-looking/tiresome. I really wish I'd published at least something somewhere; when my advisor was talking about it (it wasn't my idea, I just designed and built it) I remember thinking "I can't believe nobody else has made something like this before." Ah well.
"There are also a few great videos of people using it to dodge stuff while blindfolded."
Cause if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70_MwrkDOVU Haptic Radar Video on Youtube. Since the linked site seems to be down.
Does it let you see dead people?
See, its not a malformed link at all, but a devious way to reduce server load. People who can't or just don't feel like figuring out the link just won't read the article. It makes even less people RTFA, BRILLIANT!!!
This device doesn't allow you to see any dead people. Not even a little bit.
Swi
a shovel.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Don't you mean "dodged"?
Someone ought to ask Stalking Cat what it's like to have whiskers.
Anyone else think of the Abh? Now if only I could get the blue hair to look natural...
Insert obligatory, "Spidey Sense Made In Japan", joke here...
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Seriously though how cool would it be to have spider sense.
Damn handicap people take all the good parking spots & the super powers & don't even use them.
"(I) have this unfortunate condition that causes me not to believe a single thing any politician says when a mic's on.
This looks promising for people who are blind. IF they can increase the resolution of it would be wonderful.
Absolutely. But don't forget.. for a "spider-sense" like this, with great power comes great responsibility.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Ever since reading the wired article about the guy with the vibrating compass belt(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html ) I've always wanted to build one. Now it looks like I'll have to add infra red vision too...
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
I feel a disturbance in the force; oh.. it's you!
First step towards a working VISOR...
But can I use it blindfolded while using my Wiimote lightsaber?
I prefer the darpa one sometime ago.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/02/1551207
--
X's and O's for all my foes.
Apparently, the "f" key goes straight to "flamebait" and submits... commenting to undo a moderation that should have been done as funny...
SIG: HUP
I'm not sure, but it might be because schools suck.
Instead of vibrating a motor so you can consciously react, it would be cool if it could send electrical impulses down the appropriate nerve pathways to make you involuntarily avoid the object. Maybe it would even be possible to make a device that could let you dodge bullets.
Someone call me when they actually manage to give someone new senses, instead of overlaying a new sense on top of an existing one. It's all well and good to do something like this as an experiment, but it's just a stepping stone. The real progress will come when they can do a direct neural hookup without having to come up with some way of translating incoming data into some format that can be expressed using an existing sense.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
...but I didn't see my surroundings. All I saw was dead people.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
...tingling!
If your hearing in both ears is good and the environment isn't too noisy, you don't need a headband full of electronics and sensors for this.
With practice you can "image" enough of your environment to get around just from echoes of your own body's sounds or other ambient noises of suitable waveshape. (This is how you get the "closing in" feeling in tight spaces.)
There are reports of a totally blind kid using this effect to ride a bicycle and avoid obstacles. (He made clicking sounds with his mouth to provide a controlled, sharp (low-distance-error) sound, effectively emulating one mode of a bat's sonar.)
"Chirps" (single tones rapidly "swept" at a constant change of frequency per unit time) are potentially far better for imaging and ranging than "clicks" (impulses or short sound bursts that approximate them). But it's not clear that the human brain and vocal system has the necessary structures for generating and processing them correctly.
= = = =
Of course the headband might be much more effective than training up your own sound-generating and sensory systems - which (unlike a bat's or a cetacean's) aren't optimized for this service.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I think I forgot mine in my Sat receiver....
One young test subject, upon wearing the headband, reported that he could "see dead people"...
The researchers, upon having been thus reminded of an M Night Shyamalan movie, threw themselves out the nearest window to end their grief.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Touch isn't one sense. Temperature, surface detail, and pressure are separate parts of it. Besides balance, there's also proprioception, which lets you know where your body parts are. Then there's the sense of thoughtforms, the ability to know one's own thoughts and feelings, and the sense of self, which is the only thing that lets us do anything useful with our mental models of the world we build out of all the other senses by relating the model of the world to the model of the individual.
You may be surprised to learn there are more than four tastes, too. Besides the sour, salty, sweet, and bitter we're all familiar with, there's a fifth type of taste bud that detects glutamate, a flavor known as'umami' and characterized as 'savory' or 'meaty.'
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Having tried this sort of thing before, I think that the old saying rings true:
"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
You receive the grave-robber perk! That's a -5 to karma, BTW.
I spend a lot of time in caves. Ya wear a helmet. Despite that, you hit your head. *Astoundingly* hard, even with a helmet. All the time. Because you forget there's a huge irregular rock right beside your head, and you turn, and *whang* you hit your head so hard your olfactory nerves distort and you smell/taste copper the way you do when you've been punched.
Or, even, when exploring steam tunnels in the dark and there are cross-pipes in the way. And you have to run through the tunnels in darkness, with your flashlights off, because the campus security dudes are chasing you.
Or so I've heard.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Speaking of dodging stuff, it looks like their server dodged a few connections.
Although I don't doubt or deny the function of this headband, I think there could have been better testing.
For one thing, perhaps they should have had their ears plugged, as to not possibly hear which direction the testers were possibly approaching from.
Secondly, did anyone else notice the obvious problems in the behavior of the experimenter? In case you didn't, take a closer look again... While the headband is on, the approach of the ball to the subject was very slow, if you notice, he puts it in position on some instances, and then ever so slowly moves it closer and closer to the subject's head until they finally move. While the headband is off, there isn't nearly as much delicacy in approach. The tester will simply jab the subject in the head with it. Even with the headband on, I seriously doubt anyones ability to dodge a swift jab to the head of the nature administered.
Even without the headband on, an ever so slowly approaching object can be sensed if its looming long enough. And giving the subjects such a long time to react, and still having them respond a little later then you would expect, illustrates the biggest flaw in any system, the person. This isn't going to help anyone with poor reflexes...
None of this refutes the obvious advantages this can have for certain persons, I just wanted to make light of what I saw when I watched the video.
Nature can already do this. (so can drugs...)
Synesthesia is one of the most fascinating subjects I have ever read about. Basically, it's a neuro condition where your senses get cross-wired. For example, you would "taste" words (taste and hearing are cross-wired). Every word you hear would have a distinctive taste on your tongue. Or, you would "hear" in color (hearing and vision are cross-wired). Everything you hear produces different colors in your brain.
Yes, I know. It sound like BS. But it is not. It is well documented and seems to be fairly common. In fact, 60 Minutes did a story on it years ago but I can not find the link. Google it. Sometimes it's spelled Synaesthesia.
If we can ever master the mechanics of how it happens, we'll know what we need to know to do exactly what you lay out in your post. For now, however, it's a long way off.
But it will help you dodge one thrown at you.
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Being a techie/engineer I often end up with screwdrivers, pens etc in my pockets and sometimes one of these gets used as an ear scratcher - yes, I know; bad, risky habit.
Quite some time ago, I realised that when I approach my ear 'hole' with a pointed object I get a perceptible rumble in that ear (especially the right side) when the tip is around 1-1.5 inches from the opening - there's no physical contact at that time and so I have often wondered whether this is down to subtle changes in air pressure, magnetic field etc. but it's reproducible and weirded me out when I first noticed it.
is there a logical explanation for this?
AT&ROFLMAO
Geordie LaForge.
This was going to be my senior project...the exact same thing We thought we were the first ones to come up with it. Sadly, it seems, the Japanese beat us to it...
GE/S/P a- e++ y-- r-- s:++ d+ h! X+++ t++ C+ P+ L++ E W++ w M-- V? PS+ P+
Personaly, I'm looking forward to smision.
Big and fluffy enough, it would enable you to dodge objects blindfolded. If it's big enough, you can stick monofilaments into it, so if you spun around, the filaments would whip around, allowing you to detect (and annoy) others around you. You'd be the whirling blind-sighted disco king!
http://www.afrosamurai.com/
I believe the correct term for that is RIAA, or perhaps MPAA syndrome.
With this, someone could be Daredevil in real life.
Here's a kid who does it without any technological aids!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/19/earlyshow/main1817689.shtml
about extending human senses: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html
This project could easily provide fodder for a follow-up article.
Obviously they were completely unable to sense slashdot coming at them.
This should help Kenny Blankenship avoid getting clocked over the head by Vic Romano all the time.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
take off your blindfold.
mod me funny
http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V3104
Kurosaki: Hey, this headband doesn't do shit! Urahara: Wow, I can't believe you actually put it on
Personally I'd rather not know what everyone around me is thinking. Friends, associates, sure. Build the technology for that though, and you've got telemarketers and random idiots vying for your attention as well. And often the communication pipeline isn't the bottleneck - it's the fact that the guy or girl on the other end has no conception of what's going on. If people can't articulate their thoughts into words or pictures or other existing communication mediums, it's a good bet their ideas aren't fully conceived to begin with.
As far as the sensory improvements - people don't pay attention to the senses they have! Adding more to the stack will only have the effect of diverting their attention, I don't think a change in quality of life will actually result from this.
What I would like to see is an improvement in mental processing power. Upgrade your cognitive ability. Add a graphics unit, to conceive 3D models in your mind with ease, and send them to your friends via data uplink. Get a boost in your ability to connect new ideas, double your rate of learning...
And it's still all only worth what people use it for. As with any technology, there are people that will achieve great things with it, and thereby realize and expand its possibilities, and there are those who will waste it, or not use it at all... Such is life.
Bruce Willis is a ghost
I can also feel obstacles by deflection of air, but at a short distance only... I'm sure many of you can too.
Have you ever walked in the dark and could feel obstacles near your head? For example, you expect a door to be closed, but suddenly you can feel you're close to it, that has happened me a lot of times... It must be something about the way the air goes around obstacles, which we can probably hear or feel in our skin.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
First the WiiMote, then WiiBoard... Now it's time for the WiiHeadBand!!! Time for Nintendo to make their move!
Unless it can make me purr too, I don't want to be a Neko.
I've read about similar things mapping various kinds of sensors into vibrations, and people can learn to include them as part of their normal senses.
This one is particularly cool because it's such an apparently simple device. Very clean implementation.
Instead of vibrating a motor so you can consciously react, it would be cool if it could send electrical impulses down the appropriate nerve pathways to make you involuntarily avoid the object.
This isn't quite as fast as the reflex arc, but it isn't a conscious response... it's a learned skill that becomes as automatic as any other. There's no link to specific nerve pathways that makes me unconsciously mash the brake pedal when I'm sitting in the passenger seat and another car swerves into our path.
Sometimes it seems like I don't need *anything* for this.
...
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~husn/BRAIN/vol1/echo.html
I'll never forget the first time I arrived (by train) in Cologne Germany some years ago. It was a very dark night, and as I left the main train station, about 40 feet from the doors I felt this huge ominous presence on my left side. It scared me spitless. I stopped and looked and there was this huge black wall, which was the side of the huge Cologne Cathedral towering over the station. I'm convinced it wasn't due to seeing anything, since I don't recall the Cathedral being lit up that evening, rather it felt like this huge mass about to fall on me from the left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation
It's not tinnitus if you can really hear something.
Or I could be out of my freakin' mind and about to go deaf.
One or the other.
I wouldn't recommend doing this, but it's still cool.
09F9 1102 9D74 E35B D841 56C5 6356 88C0
There is so much crap being published, shame on you for not publishing this...
Someone was willing to FUND your work, you did the work and got a working prototype, *AND* you think it isn't worth publishing? (I can see if your grant doesn't allow you to publish the work, but that seems very odd).
There are entire conferences/journals that just focus on how to build things we already know (theoretically) how to do. The way they handle the practicle issues is what makes it publish-worthy. It sure sounds like your thing is... Even if it only took a semester... Even if it was designed by someone else...
For me, my first publication was a somewhat theoretical somewhat practical contribution that originated as a result of a project I did for a class. I spent about 5 weeks finding the solution to the problem. When I presented it at a conference, people asked me if this was my dissertation topic. And in hindsight, it could have been if I had believed that.
Unfortunately, I didn't believe that, I felt it wasn't very meaningful and lost interest. A few years later (after considering other topics), I left the PhD program entirely without finishing.
**Truly** innovative ideas don't belong in dissertations. People should start their own companies and overtake the industry with them... This was basically the message given to me by my (former) advisor!
[And no, I didn't get idea worthy enough of my starting a company]
I guess now it means the battery
I once saw a blind man being led by a dog. It was in a large sports stadium which had diagonal structural supports along a corridor. The dog was leading the man under one such support where I witnessed him walk into the concrete at head level. I would imagine this could be a great help in such a scenario.
There is only one sense, the sense of touch. Tasting and smelling are only responses to the feel of molecular shapes in receptors. Hearing is pressure against the eardrum, seeing is the brains interpretation of photons hitting the retina. TFA refers to pressure from the device against the body. About the only other sense would be the sense of time, but it's always now.
Am I the only one who though about Afro Samurai in the first place ?
Daredevil and Zatoichi did it.
Steven
I found it interesting that in the video showing the dodging subjects there was no audio. The subjects appeared to move according to the presence of the foam ball, however, it is also possible they were reacting to audio stimulus.
Interesting technology if it really works.
When I was a sexy young actress on Melrose Place wearing a pyramid hat helped me memorize my lines.
Dear Sir, Madam,
Your device is in direct copyright infrigement with the Blind Dragon Technique developped by the Shaolin Monastery.
Please cease and desist from your studies, as we can already offer you the same sensitivity with just 15 years of hard training.
As you probably know, following the recent joint venture between the Shaolin Monastery(TM) and the Ninja School of Japan(R), we recently sacked all of our lawers after we incorporated as the Ninja Shaolin Monastery of Japan Inc. Do not think that you won't have to agree with our cease and desist demands, as we now send a Ninja warrior and a Shaolin Monk to each offender.
Hoping to hear from you, even if your last scream,
your faithfull designated executioner,
Master King-Lu Yakamoto,
Ninja 5th Dan
Shaolin Master of the Blind Dragon Technique,
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
What is my car but an augmentation to my ability to move?
If it is a red Ferrari, it is an augmentation to your penis.
I've had three pairs so far. But the transistion zone is always a little different in each grinding. That bothers me for a few days or weeks until it magically disappears.
Please there seems to be a memory effect too. I use a previous for recreation and the switchover is fairly fast.
When I first shaved my head I could acutely feel temperature and airflow shifts in a room, but eventually I just got used to it.
In the dark, I can crudely use accoustics to avoid bumping into things about the size of a basketball and up.
Like others have posted, we have some of these abilities already. That said, if I could wear the headband without looking geeky, I'd go for it. Why not fill up a ball cap with sensory equipment instead of just trying to get the embriodery to stick out a half inch?
Personally, I find that flashlights are worse than darkness for seeing - but this joke made me literally laugh out loud (gasp, I forgot to abbreviate!), and deserves to be modded up.
"I am become Gerund, Destroyer of Verbs"
I never knew that they ever appeared in the same short -- what's the name? Who was the missing Stooge to make it three or were there four?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").