Positive Technology Journal

Via: KurzweilAI.net

A participant wearing camera glasses and listening to the soundscape (credit: Alastair Haigh/Frontiers in Psychology)

A device that trains the brain to turn sounds into images could be used as an alternative to invasive treatment for blind and partially-sighted people, researchers at the University of Bath have found.

“The vOICe” is a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device that encodes images taken by a camera worn by the user into “soundscapes” from which experienced users can extract information about their surroundings.

It helps blind people use sounds to build an image in their minds of the things around them.

A research team, led by Dr Michael Proulx, from the University’s Department of Psychology, looked at how blindfolded sighted participants would do on an eye test using the device.

Read full story