Sensory Substitution Device that Enables the Blind to See
Posted on February 15, 2012 by saya
The movie Star Trek: The Next Generation must have impressed many people for its imaginative device that enabled the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (who used to be blind) to see again. More surprising and exciting than that in the movie, however, is the news that scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have come up with a similar device called “Sensory Substitution Device”, which can help visually-impaired people to identify objects in real life.
According to the team, the device utilizes a camera to gather visual data and translates it into sound based on a complex algorithm. The sound is then sent to the users so that they can identify objects or even read sentences by using the sounds. Though it may sound bit of complex, the device is announced easy to use, and many people are capable of identifying objects after a “brief period of training”.
