 |
Fingersight Synesthesia Machine
Fingersight is a small device that can provide you with the synaesthetic ability to see what you can feel. Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which sensations in one form (like sight) can express in another form (like taste or sound).
(Fingersight Synesthesia (Synaesthesia) Machine)
We introduce here a concept we call Fingersight™, which may be embodied in a number of ways to provide a variety of different sensing and control devices for use as surrogates for vision and direct manipulation...There are two major components to the concept, relating respectively to sensing and controlling the environment... the sensory component was originally designed to assist the visually impaired. The introduction of control into Fingersight has expanded the potential target population to the general public, who could make use of it as an intuitive and possibly even enjoyable new form of remote control.
Tiny cameras are mounted on each fingertip, which can be used to sweep through the visual environment in three dimensions. The image from each camera is fed back to the fingertip to which it is connected. Each finger has its own receptive field, which is stimulated by a small solenoid-based vibrator.
Machine vision processing of the image from each fingertip yields information about edges, distance to objects and even texture. In this way, the operator can distinguish coffee mugs or doorknobs, "feeling" them at a distance.
The Fingersight device is a pretty good match (from the tactile point of view, anyway) for the twist box from Rudy Rucker's 1988 Wetware.
It was the day after Christmas, and Stahn was plugged in… The twist-box took his sensory input, jazzed it and passed it on to his cortex. A pure software high, and no somatic aftereffects. Staring out the window was almost interesting. The maggies left jagged trails and the people looked like actors.
(Read more about Rucker's twist box)
This brings us to a third use for Fingersight, namely, entertainment.
Watch a short video in which a guy describes his experience with synesthesia. See the original paper about the device - Fingersight: Fingertip Visual Haptic Sensing and Control. Via Fully-Functioning Synaesthesia Machine.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/3/2008)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 1 )
Related News Stories - (" Communication ")
BrainNet Social Network Of Brains
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE what we wanted and she took care of it' - Pournelle and Niven, 1981.
Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) Workshop
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
Burner Generates Temporary Phone Numbers
'Interesting phone system he's got, by the way...' - John Varley, 1984.
HushMe Bluetooth Device Reinvents The Hush-A-Phone
'Talking into a hush-a-phone which he had plugged into the telephone jack...' - Robert Heinlein, 1940.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
Jaguar I-Pace Audible Vehicle Alert System For EVs
'Of course not a vehicle moved by means of internal explosions of a derivative of rock oil...'
Autonomous 'Fiberbots' Weave Large Structures
'It extrudes material like a spider.'
Birds Aren't Real - Wake Up, California! (With Bird Watching Guide)
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Self-Healing Material Pulls Carbon Out Of The Air
'... could seal the punctures.'
IRL Glasses Block Screens, Limit Vision To Real Life
'If you couldn't see the ads, how would you know what was fashionable?'
Testing The Single-Person Spacecraft
'...the lower part of the suit was simply a rigid cylinder.'
Shapeshifting Materials Transform By Light
'Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed.'
Fully Automated Farm Iron Ox Hydroponics
'Had these machines in some incredible fashion been provided with brains?'
BrainNet Social Network Of Brains
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE what we wanted and she took care of it'
Phil Nuyttnn's City Under The Sea
'Under the lower roof there was no water, but a clear and luminous atmosphere...'
IONITY Opens First 10 Fast-Charging Stations
'Recharge the batteries... in almost every town and village...'
Superstrong Multilayer Metal-Graphene Composite Material
Negligible increase in weight increased material strength by hundreds of times.
Deepfakes Imperil Democracy (George Orwell, Right Again)
'All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.'
String Art Courtesy Of Robot Artist
The number of different ways to span a thread between a larger number of hooks is astronomical.
Still Wondering If You'd Work For A Robot Boss?
'This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck, of course.'
World's First Autonomous Tram In Germany
What's it like for autonomous trams when they're turned off at night?
