Sensorial substitution system from vision to audition using transparent digital earplugs

Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) have come a long way since first developed for visual rehabilitation. They have produced exciting experimental results, and have furthered our understanding of the human brain. Unfortunately, they are still not used for practical visual rehabilitation, and are currently considered as reserved primarily for experiments in controlled settings. Over the past decade, our understanding of the neural mechanisms behind visual restoration has changed as a result of converging evidence, much of which was gathered with SSDs. This evidence suggests that the brain is more than a pure sensory-machine but rather is a highly flexible task-machine, i.e., brain regions can maintain or regain their function in vision even with input from other senses. This complements a recent set of more promising behavioral achievements using SSDs and new promising technologies and tools. All these changes strongly suggest that the time has come to revive the focus on practical visual rehabilitation with SSDs and we chart several key steps in this direction such as training protocols and self-train tools.

show abstract

Sensory substitution: Closing the gap between basic research and widespread practical visual rehabilitation

Maidenbaum

Abboud

Amedi

2014

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

183

179

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Multimodal and Multisensory Displays for Perceptual Tasks

Raj¹,

Beach²,

Stuart³

et al. 2015

The Cambridge Handbook of Applied Perception Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to

show abstract

Multimodal Perception of Histological Images for Persons Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

Zhang

Duerstock

Wachs

2017

ACM Trans. Access. Comput.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lack of suitable substitute assistive technology is a roadblock for students and scientists who are blind or visually impaired (BVI) from advancing in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. It is challenging for persons who are BVI to interpret real-time visual scientific data which is commonly generated during lab experimentation, such as performing light microscopy, spectrometry, and observing chemical reactions. To address this problem, a real-time multimodal image perception system was developed to allow standard laboratory blood smear images to be perceived by BVI individuals by employing a combination of auditory, haptic, and vibrotactile feedback. These sensory feedback modalities were used to convey visual information through alternative perceptual channels, thus creating a palette of multimodal, sensory information. Two sets of image features of interest (primary and peripheral features) were applied to characterize images. A Bayesian network was applied to construct causal relations between these two groups of features. In order to match primary features with sensor modalities, two methods were conceived. Experimental results confirmed that this real-time approach produced higher accuracy in recognizing and analyzing objects within images compared to conventional tactile images.

show abstract

Sensorial substitution system from vision to audition using transparent digital earplugs

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Sensory substitution: Closing the gap between basic research and widespread practical visual rehabilitation

Sensory substitution: Closing the gap between basic research and widespread practical visual rehabilitation

Multimodal and Multisensory Displays for Perceptual Tasks

Multimodal Perception of Histological Images for Persons Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About