blindness

posts about #blindness more →
BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
Blindness' Dystopian Fable Becomes An Overwrought Movie
Adapting Saramago's "Blindness" Was A Journey From Horror To Poetry, Meirelles Tells io9
First 5 Minutes Of Blindness Depends On The Kindness Of Strangers
How Will The New Star Trek Movie Borrow From Star Wars?
What To Expect — And Not To Expect — From Iron Man 2
Actual Blind Pretty Pissed About Blindness Movie
Can You Meet The io9 Spoiler Photo Caption Challenge?
New Clips For Blindness Show the Slow Descent into Milky White Anarchy
This Year's Children Of Men Gets A Much-Needed Extreme Makeover

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ParryLost
08/16/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
That's really awesome news. It's amazing how technology for helping the visually impaired is advancing. The eyes (and related nerves) are so complicated and fragile... it's really exciting that we're learning how (to some still-limited degree) replace them if they are beyond repair.

... And also it makes all those robot kissing scenes in "Record of a Yokohama Shopping Trip" make more sense. :P There was even a camera that had a bit that fit into the android main character's mouth to transfer information, and it looked almost exactly like that photo, sans the glasses... :)
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Klebert L. Hall
08/16/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
That's really odd...
.
BTW, didn't Lord John Worfin do something eerily similar in Buckaroo Banzai?
-Kle.
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XerxesQados
08/16/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
Taste the rainbow?
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gorehound
08/16/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
I think it is great that our technology might just be able to enable folks to see who are blind.And there are other devices that help other kinds of disabilities.
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noisy doll
08/15/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
Does this only work for people who had vision at some point in their lives and can remember that? Or is it supposed to give sight to patients for the first time in their lives?
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment The Curse of Millhaven approved this comment noisy doll was starred noisy doll was unstarred

Indigen
08/15/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
Listen... do you smell something?
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
08/15/09

@Indigen: That girl looks delicious.
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I Think We're Property
08/15/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
Wow, I don't believe it.

No, literally, I'm not sure I believe it. Pics or didn't happen, so they say.

On the other hand, it does jive with one established brain behavior- the brain seems to be surprisingly receptive to having some of its nerves repurposed, proving its amazing plasticity by adapting to unconventional interfaces. Its just that most of the previous examples have involved surgical interfaces with the nerves, instead of just external stimulation. I guess this might just go to show that, functionally, there's no difference between direct and external stimulation.
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badmotherfucker
08/15/09

@I Think We're Property: My left hand concurs. Did I just say that out loud?
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The Curse of Millhaven
08/15/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
If it works and can be used for long periods, I think that I would prefer an invasive implant to having an electrode hanging out of my mouth. Even so, it's a very tasty piece of tech.
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Jeriba
08/15/09

@The Curse of Millhaven: Hopefully they would be able to come up with a less intrusive version, like a wireless model that can be stuck to the tongue without the big cord hanging out.
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Tomb: R.O.A.C.H.
08/15/09

In reply to BrainPort Device Lets The Blind Use Their Taste Buds To See
I guess they are gonna have to use there eyes as tungs. Imagen talking with your eyes. Its already a mouth looking thing so..
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North Star
08/15/09

@Tomb: R.O.A.C.H.: That would be nigh impossible. The eye and mouth don't share analogous parts, and many of the parts the eye doesn't have (some sort of tongue, larynx, etc.) are crucial to talking.

That said, if you manage to do, that would be many kinds of awesome.
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