Using Your Ears to See
One of the few podcasts I listen to is Quirks and Quarks, a recording of Bob McDonald’s excellent weekly science show on the CBC. The lead story of the April 2nd show is remarkable:
Imagine being blind for 25 years, and suddenly being able to see again - using your ears. It sounds impossible, but that’s exactly what happened to Pat Fletcher. For the past few years, she’s been experimenting with a revolutionary new technology that allows her to see through sound. Using a simple computer program that she downloaded from the Internet, called “The vOICe”, which translates visual images into soundscapes, Pat’s brain is able to translate those sounds back into images.
It must be heard to believed. The vOICe software (meh, somebody needs a branding workshop) looks like a pretty remarkable achievement, and Pat’s story makes for excellent radio. The moment when she describes ’seeing’ the mountains in the desert and a jet’s contrail made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
April 29th, 2005 at 4:35 pm
Uh Darren, is it me or is the vOICe link not working? I would very much like to check it out the story!
April 29th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
Ooops yes we should look before talking shouldn’t we?! The problem seems to be an extra http:// in the link.
April 29th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Thanks for letting me know–I fixed that.
April 29th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
That is a remarkable story. I heard it when it was originally aired, and still occasionally imagine hearing a picture.
Also — I think your posting this now, Darren, almost a month later, shows there’s something useful going on with CBC’s podcasting trial.