This Camera Will Make You See With Your Ears

Dr. Amir Amedi, brain researcher and Neurobiology professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, developed a technology that lets blind people ‘see’ with their ears. In this TEDx talk (TEDxJerusalem) he shows how he managed to use a simple camera, and transform the video captured into sound waves that quickly become visual images in the brain. It’s amazing to see how they can ‘see’ when someone smiles at them, just by listening to the video they capture with that small camera. He got the idea from watching bats – he knew that if they can see where they fly just by using sound waves, there must be a way for blind people to use the same technique. And it worked.

After watching the TEDx video, you can watch this second article about the same research, showing more amazing examples of how blind people can finally see things. English translation is available on top of the video.

[Via Elad Tsur]