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This Sensory Substitution Device uses the camera to gather visual data and then uses a rather nifty computer algorithm to translates this data into sound. With a little practice, blind users can identify complex objects, and even read words. More »
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You're looking at the most recent prototype of Japanese robotics manufacturer NSK's mechanical seeing-eye dog. This model uses Microsoft Kinect to navigate obstacles, and its creators are adding such features as voice recognition to prevent the robot from leading its master astray. Will future generations be dealing with these helper droids or the same trusty pup cloned ad infinitum? More »
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Vision and hearing are generally regarded as two very different senses. Unless, of course, you can echolocate. Now, scientists have revealed for the first time that human echolocators — blind individuals who navigate their surroundings by producing mouth clicks and listening to the returning echoes — actually process these sounds in the regions of the brain dedicated to interpreting visual stimuli. More »
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Sex can cause spikes in your heart rate, blood pressure, nervous system activity...and, for one poor soul, temporary blindness. Yes, that old wives' tale about sexual gratification making people go blind has, at long last, been proven true...sort of. More »
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A new Day of the Triffids movie sounds like a dreadful idea — unless it's true that Sam Raimi is directing. Raimi and Mandate Pictures paid seven figures for the film rights, so it sounds like he's serious about this. More »
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BrainPort, created by neuroscientists at Wicab, Inc., may allow the blind to restore part of their sight by routing sensory information through a different receptor. Using a digital camera and specialized "lollipop", the blind can actually see with their tongues. More »
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The best thing about the movie version of Blindness is how much it makes you appreciate the transcendent novel by Jose Saramago. The book takes a potentially hackneyed story — everyone goes blind, except for one woman — and turns it into a jarring look at how anything can become normal. At its best, the movie, directed by Fernando Meirelles (City Of God), conveys a lot of the book's squalor and warmth. But Meirelles' attempts to infuse more drama into an already intense book wind up backfiring. Spoilers below. More »
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Fernando Meirelles garnered award nominations for City Of God and The Constant Gardener. So he was probably the perfect choice to direct the film version of Blindness, Jose Saramago's terrifying novel about an epidemic of inexplicable blindness. The paralyzes an entire country and reduces civilized city-dwellers to near-animal status. But Meirelles struggled to find the right level of horror and "degradation" in his movie version, he tells io9 — an early cut of the film had dozens of women walking out in outrage. Spoilers ahead. More »
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The first five minutes of Blindness has turned up online. So judge for yourself if the blind truly are being portrayed poorly, as the actual blind are protesting. And while you're at it, go ahead and pose the moral question upon yourself. If your friend had just gone blind, would you steal their wallet and lead them up a flight of stairs, offer assistance, or hide on the sidelines? For me, it all depends on what friend. More »
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Is it a spoiler to say the Force will be with the new Star Trek movie? Only if you get into specifics, which we do below. And we also have another set report from Lost which may hint at a dire fate befalling a beloved character. (Or may not.) And there are a few hints about the Battlestar Galactica TV movie's last day of shooting. Plus, which real-life politico turns up in Watchmen (besides Nixon)? All this plus deadly, deadly spoilers for Blindness, Heroes, Chuck, Smallville, Sarah Connor, Clone Wars, Knight Rider, My Own Worst Enemy, Stargate and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. Spoilers are proven to boost your midichlorian count. More »
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Iron Man director Jon Favreau gave a lot of insight into what comic-book villains and storylines you might see in the second chapter of the Tony Stark saga. And they're not necessarily the ones you'd expect. Meanwhile, we have a sneak peek at next week's Heroes, plus a glimpse of next spring's "Fugitives" storyline. There are some no-duh spoilers for Terminator Salvation, plus some interesting tidbits about Blindness, City Of Ember, Splinter and The Burrowers. We also have a bunch of looks ahead on Smallville, plus spoilers and pics for Lost, Dollhouse, Chuck and Battlestar Galactica. Spoilers are electric! More »
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File this under 'Bound To Happen': Blindness, the movie about people being hauled off and quarantined after losing their sight from an epidemic, has ended up really ticking off real-life blind people. The offended are protesting that the blindness epidemic in the movie isn't a metaphor for the collapse of society, but really just plain insulting. Marc Maurer, president of the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind is not happy about the depiction of the blind in new movie Blindness and he's taking a stance. More »
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A bit of a light spoiler day today, but there are still some pretty awesome bits of news. The director of the movie adaptation of Jose Saramago's classic novel Blindness talks a bit about the movie's themes, and there are new pics from Quarantine. Plus some new hints about Lost, and a telltale set pic from Heroes. We also have a new pic from Friday's second episode of Star Wars: Clone Wars. And there are new hints about the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Smallville. Also, we have a caption contest: can you figure out what people are saying in our picture from an upcoming episode of Knight Rider? Spoilers can challenge your creativity! Blindness: The movie version of Jose Saramago's novel is about a group of people losing their humanity and then finding it back, plus making their own family and stuff, according to director Fernando Meirelles. And there are lots of little changes, but the major plot points from the book are the same, and so is the last line. [Sci Fi Wire] Quarantine: Here are some more promo images from the remake of the Spanish horror film [Rec]. [Movies Spoilers] Star Wars: Clone Wars: Here's a still from the second episode of Clone Wars that airs this Friday. General Grievous gets hold of a mysterious, all-powerful weapon. And he gets Master Plo Koon and a bunch of clone troopers pinned down, in a desperate situation, with only Anakin and Ahsoka available to come to the rescue. [Warner Bros.] Sarah Connor Chronicles: We're supposed to be wondering if Cameron is actually feeling any emotions, or just simulating them, and it's an unresolved issue as to whether anything lingers in Cameron's robot brain from her stint of thinking she's Alison this week. [SpoilerTV] Heroes: Here's a set photo from the Heroes set, where Daphne the speedster arrives in a taxi. Why does Daphne need a taxi? Are her powers on the blink? [WatchingHeroes] Lost: Jorge Garcia was just shooting a scene set in jail. And all the peeps on the island will learn the truth about Jin's fate at the same time as we do, in episode four. [EW] Smallville: When the Brainiac-possessed Chloe finally goes off at her wedding reception, it's like a mixture of Cloverfield and the Blair Witch Project. [EW] Knight Rider: What do you think is happening in this promotional photo from next week's episode, "Knight Of The Iguana"? I feel like we should have a caption contest for this photo. What do you think they're saying? [Knight Rider Online] Also, there are some casting calls for episode 11, "Don't Stop The Knight." We meet Carrie Rivai's physician father Lawrence, who doesn't approve of her decision to join the FBI. There's an easy-going, self-assured pilot named Gus and his hot-dog co-pilot Josh. Plus a paramedic who gets Zoe up to speed at the scene of a major explosion, a pulmonary surgeon who takes care of Carrie in the ICU, and a construction worker who can't believe it when KITT blows past blocked traffic. [SpoilerTV] And we also got hold of some actual script pages for that episode. Lucky us! Mike is searching for Olara, the foxy ambassador that he tried to rescue in the previous episode, but instead Carrie gets caught up in an explosion and barely survives. And Mike and KITT chase Gus' cargo plane on the highway, as it smashes its landing gear on an overpass. Dood! Emerson, the paramedic who saves Carrie, has to rush off to deal with all the massive injuries left by Mike's crazy driving through a construction zone. Funny! [Casting sides] More »
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Now we're thoroughly satisfied that the once-defunct movie adaptation of Jose Saramago's Blindness deserves your attention (after some much needed adjustments). Here are a few clips of the masses unraveling while their city is swept with a blindness epidemic. The style is intended to evoke the "milky white" film that blocks the victims' sight. Watch Julianne Moore lay down some heavy threats and Gael García Bernal go crazy as he claims himself King Of Ward 3. More »
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Good news: the movie version of Jose Saramago's Blindness showed at the Toronto International Film Festival the other day, and critics are saying it's improved dramatically from the version that was panned at Cannes. The painful Danny Glover voiceover? Gone. Some confusing transitions involving Julianne Moore's character? Fixed. The result is a revelation, and writer and co-star Don McKellar explained in an interview with Cinematical how the film recovered from its Cannes disaster. More »
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After an onslaught of splodey summer movies, we were excited for the movie version of Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God). The adaptation Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago's novel takes place in the near future, where cities become ravaged with a mysterious outbreak of blindness. And the government carts the "sick" off to quarantined zones, where society degenerates into mob rule and petty dictators take over. But can Meirelles' adaptation live up to the masterful source material? Early reviews point to no, sadly. More »
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Jose Saramago's novel Blindness is one of the most memorable examinations of humanity's dark side in literature. So the movie adaptation, directed by Fernando Meirelles, has a tough order to fill, even with a cast that includes Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. The film's teaser trailer, which we posted in April, was intriguing, but the new full-length trailer gives a way better sense of how the whole quarantined-blind-people thing will work. And it's mostly really good news. Click through to watch a short scene from the film. More »
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More proof that it's all in the execution: if someone told you a new movie's storyline was like Day Of The Triffids meets Doomsday, you might expect a crazy schlockfest of rubber monsters and kilt-flapping car chases. But then if you throw in that it stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, is based on a novel by a Nobel Prize-winning author and is done in the style of Children Of Men, suddenly the picture changes a bit. Spoilers ahead! More »
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