I decided to contact a couple of the people who I have researched so far, to gain more insight into their findings and ask a few questions about paths I might take with this project. I emailed Kevin Warwick (professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading), whose work implanting microchips into his arm for experimentation I had found very interesting.
I asked him if he had ever looked into sensory substitution and he replied promptly sending me a paper he had written on experimentation he had done entitled “An Attempt to Extend Human Sensory Capabilities by Means of Implant Technology”. I found this section of the paper very interesting:
“As a result, in a witnessed experiment, the recipient, whilst wearing a blindfold, was able to move around successfully within a cluttered laboratory environment, albeit at a slower than normal walking pace. The sensory input was “felt” as a new form of sensory input (not as touch or movement) in the sense that the brain made a direct link between the signals being witnessed and the fact that these corresponded in a linear fashion to a nearby object. The extent of this perception was also such that when an object was rapidly brought into the recipient’s line of (ultrasonic) sight, this had the effect of frightening the recipient."
I also decided it would be a good idea to do some primary research testing the free downloadable vOICe software from www.seeingwithsound.com. This software turns images from a webcam into sound waves which, after a while, can be interpreted by the brain.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get the software to function with my webcam so I emailed the creator of the software, Dr. Peter B.L. Meijer, asking if he could help me with the software problems I was having, and also asking a couple of questions about my project. He replied, and ended up editing the software itself so it would work with my webcam drivers! He also sent me detailed responses to all of my questions.
I haven’t done any major testing of the software yet but I think it’s fantastic you can download it free from his website. You can also download a Java version of the software to use on some camera phones, also for free. He has been such a great help and I intend to keep him posted on the progress of my project.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A blog for my BA digital Media Design course.
1 comment:
The fact that you made direct contact like this to carry out research and resolve problems is great. I've tried to encourage this where it is appropriate amongs the group and perhaps the response will be very helpful. Let us know if you get the system working and secondlay whether the help from e-mailing was part of the reason for that. This fits with the points about the wiki-culture we have been discussing. So more interesting than which software tool does what is the question has this approach worked? If yes then wiki zealots shown to be correct in this instance. If not then valuable time was wasted dealing with inadequate freeware and support which was friendly but did not give a solution. In other words as well as the technical questions here it is important to deal with the wider questions and meanings of your investigations. Great work so far...
Post a Comment