Seeing with sound

In the quest to find an electronic cure for blindness, some researchers are experimenting with brain-computer interfaces. While promising, this is an expensive and long-term solution. Another innovative approach is seeing with sound, which uses an inexpensive home-made setup to project a sonic representation of images to the user. I downloaded a free copy of the software to give it a try – and it works. I was able to quickly memorize the “sonic shape” of my face, and move the webcam around to focus on my face without looking at it. I was even able to tell how far away my face was by the duration of the signal. The sounds are the same whether you are “viewing” images on a computer screen or reality.