P3D Re: vertical 3D, etc.

[Jim Crowell <crowell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 6:03 AM -0700 9/1/98, John W Roberts wrote:
>
>>But consider a related question: how would the world look if we saw in some
>>other way than visible light? Some kind of three dimensional perception
>>would still be useful. What if we 'saw' with sonar? Or heat? Or some other
>>part of the electromagnetic spectrum? How does the world look to an ant,
>>that "sees" mainly by feel and smell?
>
>People can do that too. What does your tongue tell you about the shape of
>the inside of your mouth? One time I was involved in a party game where
>a number of objects are placed in a bag, and you try to guess what they are
>just by feeling them. It's amazing how the three-dimensional shapes come
>to mind.
>

I don't know what to call them, but I've read a few reports of experimental
"haptic vision" systems for blind people.  They involve hooking up a CCD
camera to an array of vibrators on the subject's back; the amplitude of the
vibration at a given point on the back is a function of the brightness of
the corresponding pixel in the camera image.  The spatial resolution is of
course very low, so there's only really a significant amount of information
when the camera moves around.  Claim was that after a while people were
able to get a fairly strong sensation of the surrounding space.

That was a while back, however, & I never heard of one of those devices
being prouced for real-world use...

-Jim C.
----------------------
Jim Crowell
Caltech Division of Biology
Mail Code 216-76
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