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Computer Program Allows the Blind To "See" With Sound

Posted by samzenpus on from the flipper-vision dept.

sciencehabit writes "Scientists have developed an algorithm that converts simple grayscale images into musical soundscapes. Even people blind from birth can use the technology to 'see' their surroundings and navigate around a room. Equally intriguing, the part of the subject's brain responsible for vision was active during these tasks, suggesting our thinking about how the brain works may be wrong. Instead of a 'vision center' of the brain, for example, we may actually have a region that helps us 'see', whether that input comes from sight or sound."

9 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. But can you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    play a mean pinball?

  2. Grayscale may not be best by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am not sure if "grayscale" is the most useful information to a blind person. A few years ago I tried on some ultra-sound goggles designed for the blind. The cool thing about it was that, with practice, by listening to the pulses, I could not only tell how close an object was, but also how rigid or dense it was. A pillow would sound very different from a rock. Just by listening, I could "look" at two soda cans on the shelf, and tell which one was empty. Of course, it gave no information about color.

    1. Re:Grayscale may not be best by hozozco · · Score: 4, Informative

      My Daughter is legally blind. She has rod monochromatism often called achromatopsia (http://www.achromatopsia.info/) and doesn't see any colour (only grey scale). She seems to think greyscale is quite useful. Now obviously colour would also be useful, but greyscale allows you to 'see' most things. In some states in the USA people with achromatopsia can drive using bioptic glasses (http://www.biopticdrivingusa.com/achromatopsia/). Of course the rest of the world sees this and thinks 'only in America'. Anyway, this is interesting if not entirely new. Other students at my daughters school (for the visually impaired) also learn echo location - this is from my daughters school: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/stor... :-)

  3. Development in Science by jawnah · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm glad to see a post that positively promotes development in science. For some reason, our "science" has stagnated lately in my opinion with "scientists" taking hard-line approaches to situations - they are no longer thinking out of the box and force everyone to think in the box or be ostracized and labeled "stupid". I agree that there is more likely a part of the brain that helps us "see". I believe that the data used by that brain center can be different to produce different results: 1) You see with your eyes the events happening in front of you. 2) You see with your mind when you recall a sequence of events, situation, or even dream.

    1. Re:Development in Science by narcc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not science or scientists so much as it is the thundering hoard of scientifically illiterate science cheerleaders -- the self-appointed elite defenders of "science".

      They're worse than creationists.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
  4. Somewhat old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have a friend who is working on his PHD in experimental psychology at the moment, and we had a discussion about this 4 or so years ago. Apparently this is the new paradigm of thinking in the neuroscience world, or has been on the verge of becoming the new paradigm for some time now. The brain is just a pattern recognition engine, in much the same way that we are able to wire a monkeys brain to a robotic arm, and over time have that brain adapt to control this new appendage, the brain will take any signal that seems like it might be visual and process it as such.

  5. There are people who can echolocate by Khashishi · · Score: 2

    I saw an episode of a documentary/show Extraordinary People on Ben Underwood, and it was incredible what he was capable of, including riding a bicycle and playing basketball using echolocation. This is without any computer program or aid. Unfortunately, he died in 2009. As far as I know, only a few people possess this skill, but it can apparently be taught. The world expert is probably Daniel Kish.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

  6. Except It Doesn't by Baby+Duck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This does not change how we think of the brain. We've know for decades from synesthesia that sensory cortices have no choice but to process any inputs they receive.

    --

    "Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins

  7. You're maybe not incorrect by ubergeek · · Score: 2

    But they're wrong in a more important way: We've believed for years that the visual cortex is actually a visualization center! It just happens that when we're awake and looking with our eyes the visualization is constrained by sensory inputs. Sensory (and even association) cortices are basically simulators, that contain our best models of the world (what we expect the world to be like, based on prior experience), and the parts of those models that are active are dynamically constrained in real time by sensory data. When we have no sensory input at all, those models can run freely (this is essentially what is happening when we dream or have out of body experiences).

    When individuals completely lose (or are born without) input for one modality, there's no reason to think they couldn't still use the corresponding cortical hierarchy for modelling (visualizing) that aspect of the world. The reported research is good evidence that this is exactly what happens.