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Implant Translates Written Words To Braille, Right On the Retina

Posted by timothy on from the downright-amazing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "For the first time, blind people could read street signs with a device that translates letters into Braille and beams the results directly onto a person's eye." According to the article, "In a trial conducted on a single patient who already used the [predecessor] device, the person was able to correctly read Braille letters up to 89 percent of the time, and most of the inaccuracy appeared when the participant misread a single letter. The user was able to read one word a second."

16 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Missing by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Funny

    "For the first time, blind people could read street signs with a device that translates letters into Braille and beams the results directly onto a person's eye."

    There's something missing here. I can't... quite... put my finger on it. I'm sure I'll get it in a minute.

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    1. Re:Missing by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 3, Funny

      You missed .. reading the article. No worries, just click on the link and you'll be fine.

  2. Why not just use the letter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was always under the impression that the braille language is meant to be touched, not "read" via sight. Wouldn't it make more sense to just project the letters into the person's retina vs. the dots for Braille?

    1. Re:Why not just use the letter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      In the case of people born blind, they were only taught to read braille. It might actually be more difficult for someone to learn a brand new character set AND adjust to "seeing" the words.

    2. Re:Why not just use the letter? by korgitser · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'd also go with the fact that braille is 6-bit byte binary. That's about as simple i/o as you can get in this area.

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    3. Re:Why not just use the letter? by Mal-2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Braille is a six-bit binary code. This was done largely because the previous system -- raised type being "read" by fingers -- was slow and inadequate. Whether the input comes through your fingertips or through the optic nerve matters little. If the bandwidth is low, it helps a lot of the content is pre-digitized. That's what Braille does.

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    4. Re:Why not just use the letter? by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I was always under the impression that the braille language is meant to be touched, not "read" via sight. Wouldn't it make more sense to just project the letters into the person's retina vs. the dots for Braille?

      because the blind people do NOT know what the letter is usually, but they know braille.

      don't need to retrain them to use the device, i'm sure one that display letters would be made later.

      People with retinitis pigmentosa are formerly sighted. It's not a given that they know braille and almost a given that they can recognized standard letters. Braille was chosen because of the crudity of the device.

  3. Re:a trial of one by amRadioHed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These aren't drug trials here, you don't need a large sample size to determine probable effects. The guy is blind. If he can suddenly read after using this device we can be pretty certain the device is responsible.

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  4. The blind know braille but maybe not latin letters by kawabago · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can't assume blind people are familiar with the alphabet as we see it. They recognize a letter as a dot pattern instead of latin letter. It means 'a' to them be they might never know what 'a' actually looks like.

  5. One word per second by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Beware ..... of ...... the ......vicious .......dog.......

    Auggghhh!

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  6. Re:Another Great Slashdot Summary by dissy · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you read a bit further in the article, you'll note the part you quoted is the description of the PREVIOUS model device.

    The CURRENT model, which the summary is talking about, being an improvement to the original, CAN read street signs and at one letter a second.

    I use caps since you don't obviously don't read everything presented :P

  7. 89% of the time, it works every time by renhwa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "In a trial conducted on a single patient who already used the Argus II device, the person was able to correctly read Braille letters up to 89 percent of the time, and most of the inaccuracy appeared when the participant misread a single letter."

    ...so by "the person was able to correctly read Braille letters up to 89 percent of the time," they mean that at one point during the test, they showed the guy a 9 letter word, and he got 1 letter wrong. Did the patient 1/9 letters wrong overall, or was this one rare mistake? How many words did they have the patient read? The technology is amazing, don't get me wrong, but somebody needs to tell their product testing/PR crews how to convey performance in a remotely meaningful way.

  8. Suck it, Apple by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now THIS is a retina display!

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    Circumcision is child abuse.
  9. An army of one by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do you make more than one prototype once your first prototype shows the basic method works? Why would you do that?

    Pickle's worried about the placebo effect.

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    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  10. Re:Another Great Slashdot Summary by neoshroom · · Score: 4, Funny

    PREVIOUS CURRENT CAN? I say, previous current cannot nor could it ever.

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  11. Re:a trial of one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    i think we need a double blind study before we can be certain.