A Revolutionary Approach: Enhancing Vision Through Remote Sense of Touch

I have serious doubts about this. Not that it doesn't exist but that anyone would use it. Certainly not for me.

Thinking about some of this stuff maybe I'm just to old for it. Now in my mid 50s some of this stuff just seems to off the wall for me.

I'm 54 and I've bought the glide as well lol.

This sounds like a variation on the BrainPort, just different in where they stick the tactile doohickeys. I don't know how it would work out for blind people who don't have tactile to visual translation going on in their head. However, plenty of people who didn't have that used Optacons back in the day, and they're slightly similar in concept, if I understand it correctly.

As I understand it, tactile to visual translation is more like a learned thing. Brain adapts to it once we start using it. And more brain space is allocated to it. more reading on this by going into the keyword brain plasticity.
That aside, this is exciting. Like someone said above, this is a natural progression from optacon to brain port, to this. And this is the right time since AI can now help do the processing to an extend, thus regulating the amound of information conveyed, making sure that the sensations aren't overwhelming or so crowded so as not to make sense.

There are some members here who do not have anything visual in their mind. I don't know how to think about how those members would experience the output of this device. I enjoy and value the discussions between us on that subject. There are other members who have said they have tactile sense issues. That one, I can understand how this might be an issue with this device.

Well, being someone who was born blind, the way I perceive, say, a shape is by the sense of touch. When someone says the word "circle", the impression that comes to my mind is that of the touched shape of a circle. even the whole idea of space for me is conveyed through impressions of touch. If there were ways of conveying more complex shapes to me by way of tactile or haptic feedback, I imagine those would've made sense to me. Even the whole idea of vision itself is somewat like this only I suppose. I mean, it's all about the impressions that the brain gets and how it decides to perceive those impressions.

I suppose it's the part of the title, "Enhancing Vision Through Remote Sense of Touch," that made me curious.
I would be utterly shocked if learning and practicing sonic navigation didn't change a person's brain.

So, am I the only one here that is actually interested in how this thing develops?

I was interested, but I can't get any of the links or videos on their site to work. I don't even know what body parts they're putting haptic material on. If it's a hat, some of us live in cultures where most men are expected to remove hats and head coverings indoors. And as I've said before, one is only asked to remove one's glasses--if that's the form factor--before being punched in the face...

I didn't see any description on their site about how the device works and is used. Is this a haptic touch screen or a set of gloves that convey the tactile sense?

How does the tactile sensing deal with objects at different distances, different colors or brightness, etc.?

What kind of resolution can a person sense and how does that compare to the resolution and detail associated with objects, textures, and items at different distances also providing feedback?

Sounds impossible.

Would be interesting to hear some feedback from real users.

--Pete

No, not as such. Already there were devices like the brainport, which was at a time when both digital camera and computer vision technologies were at their infancy. and biologically, some parts of our skin have more nerve endings than the retina. The rest of the heavy lifting is done by the brain anyway. It's just the matter of teaching the brain to do that heavy lifting, if all the external stuff come together. Having said that, that teaching part ain't gonna be easy for anyone.

"The patented Haptic Material™ translates the physical environment into high-resolution physical touch feelings on the forehead. This provides situational awareness and recognition about surrounding objects, motion, speed and distance without the need for eyes or ears. We refer to this as ‘Telehaptic Vision’"

https://www.youtube.com/@SeventhSenseTech/videos
This is their youtube channel; some of the videos do seem not to play but that could just be me.
And interesting point, they do seem to imply that this is not just a blindness product, but also a product for blindness with hearing loss, of which many are not around.

Guess what guys? The videos do play, there's just no damn audio!

This has a blind person on the team and yet they didn't check for audio? or perhaps they didn't care, I don't know.

I do know that their links do nothing when pressed... Sometimes this world just confuses me, why have a blind lead and make such obvious mistakes?

This is one of those things I'd check out but then put back.

This remind me of the Forehead Electro-tactile Display for Vision Substitution project. One whitepaper on it is here:

https://www.tachilab.org/content/files/publication/ic/kajimoto2006EuroHaptics.pdf

The Brainport kind of is the same but they use the tongue for reasons I never understood. Believe it or not, and I realzie I'm some random guy on the internet, I got to try a prototype of this forehead tactile device around 2006. It was fascinating. When I walked around with it and approached a doorway for example, I could feel two vertical lines indicating the door frame. And as I moved back and fourth to center myself the lines moved. I never heard what happened to the project. Perhaps it ran out of funding or the regulating agencies never approved the electrode array thing. I used it for only maybe 5 minutes, hard to say what long term use would do to the skin.
So if I understand this latest thing it is trying to convey the tactile by shape shifting a material? I'd have questions about reliability, but could see why it may be preferable to direct electric stimulations. I do know from firsthand experience if they could do it the information received tactilely can be useful. I've never gotten to meet a BrainPort user but they may be interesting to interview to see how useful the extra sense as it were, is.

I am someone who has no to little concept of my body in relation to space, and struggle with spatial concepts in general, so I think this would be an absolute and complete miss for me. More tools for people to navigate and gain more knowledge/confidence within their worlds can only be a good thing, though! What doesn't work for one will likely work for others.

Very interesting.

Look, I'm having difficulty writing this in a way that will be properly construed... You can feel what you're looking at just as well, if not better, with your tongue as your fingers, and lips are in the same realm of sensitivity, assuming you don't have some sort of nerve issue. I'm sure the forehead is pretty good for looking at things, and has much more area, so larger views are possible. Long ago, the back or upper chest were being considered, from what I was told at the time, but none of this haptic stuff existed in that ancient era. It was all vibrating pins and heavy apparatuses, and those horrible Ni-Cad batteries.
I, personally, would rather not have something covering my forehead, and am a little more comfortable with the oral retainer type of interface. I had to wear the retainers for a time after having dental braces. They could probably have audio conduction also, but the battery life might be limited. When will they come up with a way to power things from your body...?

Has anyone actually had a chance to try this thing out? My blind cousin is interested in buying one. However, he doesn't want to blindly invest in such a truly expensive product, only to find himself discontented with it. We would be eternally grateful if someone with first hand experience could chime in and enlighten us.

Thanks,
Sadik

Hi,
This company were on the RNIB tech talk podcast. It's six or seven grand, I wouldn't buy this if you paid me a million dollars. I wouldn't even get this for free. If it were just a few hundred quid, yeah, I'd say, go for it, if you really want, but six or seven grand, no way, absolutely no way. There are just these weird haptic things, that's it. No speech, meaning I would have to learn what the different haptics represent. Too much hard work, especially when I've got other options which have worked for the last nearly 40 years of my life. I don't like the thing on the Apple Watch which tells the time using haptics, but the Apple Watch is considerably cheaper, and it can do a lot more things, and I don't have to use haptics if I don't want to. I've been blind all my life, and have managed perfectly well with a combination of the white cane, trains, taxis, buses on the odd ocasion, people driving me, and just asking for help when I need it. This wouldn't enhance my life at all. I'd rather buy a pair of relatively aesthetically pleasing smart glasses that can describe my surroundings, OCR stuff if possible, something like the Meta Ray-Ban or the Seleste, but something that actually works and isn't such an expensive subscription. Maybe in a few years, we might get there with a good pair of smart glasses, but nothing like this. What's the point of something that can't OCR signs, describe your surroundings, or give you turn by turn navigation. VoiceVista or BlindSquare are either free or relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, and quite frankly, they can do more for you than merely helping you to navigate obstacles. If you have a cane or guide dog and use either or both tools effectively, there is absolutely no need for a product like this, a cane or dog will navigate you round obstacles no problem. Here's the interview, you can make up your own mind.
https://www.rnib.org.uk/connect-radio/rnib-connect-radio-shows/tech-talk/tech-talk-552-superbrain-headset-braille-emotion-demo-accessible-gaming-roundup-8653961/

Preach it sister Tara!!! 😎✌️

I mean, if they were paying me a million dollars to try it, Tara, I probably would for a little while. Maybe not in public though.. It sounds like something that would be like wearing a disabled parking placard on your forehead. If it's a hat form, there are people who get vicious over men wearing head coverings indoors in my part of the world,...