OT: How Amazing

Atrocities · #1 March 24th, 2004, 12:56 AM

Its amazing how we have the technology to capture what we see with such definition and detail that it is truly amazing to see, however we cannot take that image capturing ability, digital video, and convert it into technology that can give a blind man sight.

The mergance of Mechanical, electrical and biological technologies into a new technology that can give sight to the blind, hearing to the death, and artifical limbs that look and work as if a natural part of the human body are still decades if not centuries away from become a reality.

This is so very sad.

Speaking of Amazing things, what new technology do you think we will see in say the next twenty years or so? With how much our technology has evolved and changed over the Last decade it is easy to speculate that new technologies are sure to come as rapidly as they have spawned in the past.

newbie123 · #2 March 24th, 2004, 01:33 AM

I saw a couple things about letting blind people see. One was shown in my engineering class, an engineer jacked into the optical sensors(I think) in his brain and hooked it up to almost a mini video digital camera. Supposedly he had very good sight from it, but wll not expand on the idea because he fears the radiation from his device will cause brain tumors. Another device shows the differenc in light with white and black dots, giving partial sight to the blind. They showed what the blind person would see with this device, and it looked decent at least. I think the latter was shown on ripley's believe it or not once

geoschmo · #3 March 24th, 2004, 01:38 AM

Actually those technologies you mention are not as far away as you think.

We already have crude artifical ears. It's called a cochlear implant, and it's in wide use already. In fact one of the biggest detrements to them to this point is they work so well that many deaf people are resistant to it on philisophical reasons.

We may have artificial limbs that respond to thought commands and give tactile feedback to the sensory centers of the brain within the next decade or two. They already have labratory experiments with primates that have shown remarkable success.

Artifical eyes will probably take more then ten years. What they are already working on is a sensory device that you wear like clothing that gives feedback to the brain about objects around you. It's not the same thing as eyesight, but the brain uses it as visual clues. Some studies show we are very close to a practical device sensite enough to allow differention between different peoples faces. Actual artifical eyes that are implanted and give the same kind of information as biological ones are probably far off, but I would expect they will be much closer to decades then centruries

Imperial · #4 March 24th, 2004, 01:40 AM

I agree, I have some vision problems due to surgery on both eyes from complications with juvenille diabetes. Would be neat to see advances to restore and improve vision. they actually did develope a kind of "visor"--i cant recall the specifics, but i saw it on the news. perhaps before long the technology will advance. (we need to build more reasearch center III

)

Atrocities · #5 March 24th, 2004, 02:30 AM

I am blind in my right eye and loosing vision in my left and for me life is not worth living without vision.

It is easy for someone to say otherwise until they themselves walk a mile in my shoes. Only then will they understand how very important sight is.

[ March 24, 2004, 00:31: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Suicide Junkie · #6 March 24th, 2004, 02:37 AM

One good thing is that for people who have not been blind from birth, the brain is already wired and trained to process colour, depth perception, word shapes and all sorts of similar skills.

Simply providing a bridge over some damage to a brain that is ready and waiting for visual info is a much simpler prospect than trying to give someone a sense they have never had the use of before.

Atrocities · #7 March 24th, 2004, 06:17 AM

That is an excellent point SJ. Thank you for making it.

narf poit chez BOOM · #8 March 24th, 2004, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Atrocities:
I am blind in my right eye and loosing vision in my left and for me life is not worth living without vision.

It is easy for someone to say otherwise until they themselves walk a mile in my shoes. Only then will they understand how very important sight is.

It seems to me then that this is an issue you should be talking to blind people about. There are a lot of living blind people, so I would guess that there are a lot of blind people who have found compensations.

Captain Kwok · #9 March 24th, 2004, 06:40 AM

If they layed off some of the harshness re: stem cell research, we might even be able to regenerate your eyes for you Atrocities!

atari_eric · #10 March 24th, 2004, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
One good thing is that for people who have not been blind from birth, the brain is already wired and trained to process colour, depth perception, word shapes and all sorts of similar skills.

Simply providing a bridge over some damage to a brain that is ready and waiting for visual info is a much simpler prospect than trying to give someone a sense they have never had the use of before.

I'm not so sure. I think if you gave such a device to someone who didn't have eyes, their brain would learn to use the device using techniques optimized for the device, instead of adapting previous techniques from another organ...