I like the use of the term, 'sensory augmentation' from the youTube video clip.
Stay well Jacob Kruger Blind Biker Skype: BlindZA '...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'----- Original Message ----- Hi All,
For your information. Appended is the abstract of an upcoming presentation by Amir Amedi on Wednesday May 15, 2013, at EPFL School of Engineering in Lausanne, Switzerland. Best wishes, Peter Meijer Seeing with Sound - The vOICe http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm “Seeing” and reading with the ears, hands and bionic eyes: from basic research to visual rehabilitation. Abstract.My research focuses on blindness, which is both a limiting condition affecting
many millions worldwide, and constitutes a unique model for answeringfundamental questions in cognitive neuroscience. My lab's work ranges from basic
science, querying brain plasticity and sensory integration, to technological developments, allowing the blind to be more independent and even “see” using sounds and touch similar to bats and dolphins (a.k.a. Sensory Substitution Devices, SSDs), and back to applying these devices in research. The central hypothesis of the work is that visual areas can process sound and touch to a similar extent as they process vision, but only when subjects learn to fullyextract the relevant information encoded by these alternative senses. I propose that, with proper training, many (if not all) visual brain areas or network can
change the type of sensory input it uses to retrieve behaviorally(task)-relevant information within a matter of weeks/months. I also suggest that visual-like selectivity might develop without any visual experience. If this is true, it can have far reaching implications also for clinical rehabilitation,
the second major aim of my lab. To achieve this, we are currently developingseveral innovative SSDs which try to encode the most crucial aspects of vision
and increase their accessibility the blind, along with targeted, structuredtraining protocols both in virtual environments and in real life scenarios using
these novel SSDs (or veteran SSDs like The vOICe). For the results of such training and summary of the concept see this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVBp2nDmg7EFinally, SSDs can also be used in conjunction with (any) invasive approach for visual rehabilitation. We are developing a novel hybrid Visual Rehabilitation Device (VRD) which combines SSD and visual prostheses that at present lack in terms of resolution and in rehabilitative power. In this VRD, the SSDs are used
in training the brain to “see” prior to surgery, in providing explanatory signals after surgery and in augmenting the capabilities using informationarriving from the same image (e.g. adding color, depth and, increased resolution).
Source URL: http://sti.epfl.ch/page-1545-en.html ---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za
