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A Breakthrough in Artificial Vision!

New concept of artificial vision – Tactile Vision! Newly patented means of coding and transmitting the signal – Artificial Vision Device!

The idea of compensating for the informational deficit

The idea of compensating for the informational deficit caused by blindness has a long history. Early successes were mainly connected with attempts to switch the informational stream from the disabled “channel” to another one – whether audio (by using a narrator or a guide), or tactile (Braille). But all these efforts demanded some degree of participation by another person in the processing of information.

The experiments of Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rhyta in the 1960s were very different from earlier ones. He and his team were actually able to prove that it was possible to transmit visual information through tactile receptors with the help of electro- stimulation (Nature, 1964). The device created by Dr. Bach-y-Rhyta’s research was somewhat similar to our electro-tactile display. Consisting of 300 electrodes, it was built into the back of an arm-chair and connected with a stationed camera, directed by an operator.

Unfortunately, however, Dr. Bach-y-Rhyta’s research was cut short, as his team failed to demonstrate how their discovery could be developed for practical usage. Even after a long period of training (over 300 hours), for instance, the subjects could barely recognize simple geometrical shapes or static pictures. Moreover, the equipment they used did not allow for mobility on the part of the subject. The engineers could neither make a smaller device, to afford the subject some mobility or self-navigation, nor allow for a wide range of an electrical signal, nor create a device for the intermediary processing of information (because of the analog way of transmission).

The authors of all these brilliant ideas were clearly ahead of their time, and therefore faced a whole range of obstacles both technical and ideological in nature. By ideological obstacles, we are referring to how the research of the 1960s and 70s was challenged by the idea that vision was a “natural” ability requiring “artificial” compensation mirroring the lost ability. Few researchers could view vision as a dynamic process whose compensation might be achieved by focusing on the informational aspect of the deficit. Living prior to the “information revolution” of the late 20th century, they naturally focused more on the eye as an organ than as a means of information-transmission. When researching ways of transmitting information by the human nervous system, it did not occur to them to explore the possibility of modifying and adapting the information.

Ideas ahead of their time continue to characterize research in this field. In recent years, attempts have been undertaken to create a new channel of informational transmission by placing electrodes inside the human brain. As we see it, however, the time when an engineer can change, rather than assist, nature is still far in the future.

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