Hacking Our Five Senses and Building New Ones 290
ryanguill writes "Wired has an article about expanding your five (maybe six) senses to allow you to sense other things such as direction. It also talks about hijacking other senses to compensate for missing senses, such as using electrodes in your mouth to compensate for lack of eyesight. Another example is a subject wearing a belt with 13 vibrating pads. The pad pointing north would vibrate giving you a sense of direction no matter your orientation: '"It was slightly strange at first," Wächter says, "though on the bike, it was great." He started to become more aware of the peregrinations he had to make while trying to reach a destination. "I finally understood just how much roads actually wind," he says. He learned to deal with the stares he got in the library, his belt humming like a distant chain saw. Deep into the experiment, Wächter says, "I suddenly realized that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn't get lost, even in a completely new place."'"
Chose a sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Chose a sense (Score:4, Interesting)
Am I the only one... (Score:4, Interesting)
that was immediately reminded of Geordi's visor?
Zen for birds. (Score:1, Interesting)
"Deep into the experiment, WÃchter says, "I suddenly realized that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn't get lost, even in a completely new place.""""
Now you know how birds feel.
Radio would be fun to see (Score:5, Interesting)
It'd be fascinating to see radio waves, overlaid on your normal vision.
Any radio science buffs have ideas of what it would look like?
I'm guessing it'd be a constant semi-transparent haze. But since radio waves are directional, and some are limited by varying altitudes, I'd imagine there must be some gradation you could perceive.
perhaps senses we don't realize we have? (Score:4, Interesting)
Only recently have we realized that cows and deer have a sense of magnetic direction [pnas.org]. Just this month, the same group found that power lines can muddle the cattle's sense of direction [pnas.org].
It's a stretch, but is it possible we humans have a weak magnetic sense that's simply drowned out by urban noise?
Surely there have been studies on this. Anyone?
Re:Chose a sense (Score:2, Interesting)
Several people have done this (google pulls up feelingwaves.blogspot.com/ ). Apparently super gluing to your fingers also works, albeit less effectively.
We have 23 senses (Score:4, Interesting)
In my biological psychology class, we covered 23 distinct senses that provide use with environmental information.
Just makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)
We are entering an age of information awareness. We literally have machines that can now read our minds. We would be remiss to not take advantage of this!
I'm a pilot, and for a long time, I stubbornly stuck to the "old way" of navigation using VOR radio navigation rather than the newer GPS-based systems. Basically, every 50 miles or so, there's a radio beacon that broadcasts a directional radio signal that you can triangulate from. My logic was that virtually all planes have some kind of VOR in them, while perhaps 1/3 of planes have GPS units.
But I recently "bit the bullet" and learned to use the GPS in the newer rental plane at the local airport. I noticed it immediately: what a difference! Last week, I flew to an airport I hadn't landed at before - something that's always just a bit nerve-racking with radio navigation due to the unfamiliarity. Typically, I've made it a habit to fly in direct to the "new" airport 1,000 feet above the local traffic pattern to get my bearings and prepare an approach - adding a fair amount of time circling around and so on.
But with the GPS locating me to within a few feet on a "moving map", I was confidently making calls as to my location and whereabouts, and made a direct base approach right to the numbers on the runway! No hunting, no worries about traffic patterns. Just straight in.
No, I didn't surgically implant the GPS unit, but it's clearly a case of technology using the sense of sight to improve informational awareness. I'm all for it! If I could (safely) have a bluetooth display of my mobile phone surgically implanted into my brain so that I could, at any time, access google maps, etc. it would dramatically change how I interface with the world. Just think of the advantages:
1) I'd never get lost.
2) I'd be able to look up new words and concepts as needed, seamlessly.
3) I'd be able to make use of "dead time" such as while driving/flying. (most of the latter is spent at cruise altitude letting the auto-pilot get you there)
This is the future. We already approximate it with our mobile phones - technology will become ever more intimate as we approach the technology singularity.
Get ready for it! Weeeeeeeh!
See Hear (Score:3, Interesting)
I once read where some researchers learned to "read" spoken words from printed sound spectragrams, where frequency (in various shades based on density) is on one axis and time on the other. This made me wonder whether deaf people couldn't also learn to read them at a near real-time pace with practice. At the time a custom-manufactured device seemed like the way to go, but now an off-the-shelf hand-held computer/phone/PDA is probably up to the task with the right software and mike.
Re:Zen for birds. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not just how birds feel. People who spend the majority of their time outdoors, with the ability to see the sun, get the same feeling. Citydwellers have the unfortunate circumstance of generally not being able to judge direction by the location of the sun; people in rural areas don't have this problem.
I grew up in a rural area, but close to the ever-encroaching burbs. I spent most of my time outside (I know, anathema to most slashdotters)... and to this day I subconsciously know what way is north, no matter where I am... as long as I've gotten glimpse of the sun in the morning or night at some time from that location. This is why I never get lost outside (though dealing with indirect roads can make it umm, interesting getting to where I want to go.
If I had some kind of input for direction when inside, I'm pretty sure I'd have a good bump of direction inside as well... but since I don't, I find extensive underground systems annoying (like Grand Central Station in Manhattan).
IOW, the guy who wore the vibrating belt added a different sensory input. Humans already have the capacity for "mapmaking", it's not limited to birds. Ask any orienteer. We just have little reason to exercise it in today's world.
Re:We have 23 senses (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:perhaps senses we don't realize we have? (Score:1, Interesting)
OMG you have just discovered cold fusion! Cows are clearly superconducting, because they're magnetic and frictionless, so they naturally rotate towards magnetic north!
Yeah, and that has nothing to do with the fact that fences usually run either N/S or E/W, or that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and if you live north of the tropics (as most cattle in the northern hemisphere do), then facing north guarantees that you'll never have sun in your eyes.
(Hint: Cows point north, but not necessarily magnetic north, which can be off by a VERY large margin in some areas.)
Re:Compass belt (Score:5, Interesting)
It would make a lot more sense to use piezos than vibrators. They also don't need to run constantly. I'm told that at high frequencies the piezo vibration resembles pressure more than vibration, but have no personal experience.
Re:Been there, done that (Score:4, Interesting)
I use landmarks to determine progress, but my location, the route, and the destination are mapped in my head. If the map is there, I can easily recalculate my route if there are detours or other unexpected changes to the route.
Also, I always know (unless in a maze of twisty passages all alike) my orientation -- whenever I'm new to a place, I'm always looking for the sun to verify, until it becomes second nature. I do this subconsciously -- my wife comments on it whenever we're on a road trip, which is the only reason I noticed.
Re:Compass belt (Score:3, Interesting)
Five senses is not enough (Score:5, Interesting)
Brother Cavil: "I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!"
Re:Compass belt (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bernoulli (Score:5, Interesting)
No airplane seeking to maintain altitude flies with the nose completely flat; the nose is always pitched slightly upward in order to shove air downward with the wings. At speed it happens that the pitch angle is very small -- too small to notice -- but it's there. It has to be. Yes, I'm a private pilot.
Actually, the B-52 can often be seen flying nose down in level flight. It takes off and lands fuselage-level.
Why?
Because it's not the fuselage angle that matters, it's the angle of attack relative to the wing. And the B-52's wing is set so that it is at a positive angle of attack relative relative to the oncoming air when the fuselage is level. This pre-set wing angle is called "incidence".
For small angles of attack, you can generally assume that a graph of lift vs. angle of attack is linear. A symmetrical wing will have an X-intercept of 0 (so at zero angle of attack, you get no lift). Adding positive camber slides that X-intercept negative, so to get zero lift you actually need a negative angle of attack. You will also have positive lift at zero angle of attack.
I think the discussions about AOA and other topics are covered far too lightly in most pilot training courses. It also seems to me that it would be very useful to put all new students into some kind of simulator (even just a PC fighter sim) with a heads-up display showing nose "boresight" and a flight path marker, and demonstrating the relationship between alpha, weight, lift, and airspeed in a format that is clearly visible and understandable. Even just 20 or 30 minutes of this might give them a far better understanding of what's actually happening when they're flying.
Yes, I'm a private pilot too. And when I eventually get around to building my airpane, it's going to have a nice prominent AOA indicator, which is far superior to just airspeed for slow flight, maneuvering, and landing.
Re:Chose a sense (Score:3, Interesting)
The glove method is even safer, more quickly reversible, and arguably cheaper, since you don't need glue and probably already own gloves.
Can either use little magnets stuffed in the pointer fingertip of the gloves, or big ole hard drive magnets kind of held in the palm. Or both, I suppose, but be careful they don't stick together.
I've tried this and it works quite well until your hands sweat too much from the gloves being too warm inside the house. Old fashioned linear power supplies are much more entertaining than modern switchers. It's pretty strange knowing by touch if a material is ferromagnetic, because it's "sticky". I was not able to move my hands fast enough / use strong enough magnets to experience magnetic braking when waved over conductive surfaces, although I suppose it should be possible with stronger magnets. Tiny bits of magnetic junk built up on the gloves as I pawed everything... Best not touch CDs/DVDs when covered with magnetically attached iron shrapnel. In summary, it was a fun, cheap, and respectible way to entertain myself for about an hour.
Re:That's easy (Score:3, Interesting)
That would bring a whole new level of intimacy to oral sex.
Re:Compass belt (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, they *do* need to run constantly. How would it know when to run and when not to?
No, I mean, it can just send short pulses every second or so.
Having it turn on or off would be distracting.
Having it at all would be distracting, until you got used to it.
Re:Chose a sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:We have 23 senses (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Compass belt (Score:5, Interesting)
Wouldn't a mild current be better? It would eliminate the issues with sound/vibration, and it should cause the batteries to last longer. Granted it would require direct contact to skin, but I would think something could easily be done by wiring the lining of underwear. The compass, power and electronics would be in a detachable unit, so it'd be completely washable (probably would want low heat for dryer). I suspect once you get some practice (with a decent plan) it wouldn't take more then a few minutes to wire a new set of underwear. It'd be cheap and invisible but you'd have to calibrate the compass based on where you clip it.
I was actually thinking a while ago of a similar project. It would have several antennas (or ultrasonic emitters) and similar electrical feedback to act as a shortrange radar. So you'd be able to sense things behind you. Perhaps use a pulsed doppler system it could track range, speed and cross-section size. With a little computation it could even predict if something will hit you at an unsafe speed (spidey sense!). The main problem is where it could be put without a lot of noise, if it was a belt your arms would interfere with it. A collar would probably work best but it'd be fugly.
Re:Compass belt (Score:3, Interesting)
Or LEDs on the inside of spectacle frames? Green when facing North, red for South.
Practical experiment (Score:3, Interesting)
Many years ago when I was interested in psychic powers, I figured that if we really do have some kind of extrasensory perception it's probably our nervous system that's doing it, just in some unknown way, So I tried an experiment to make my nervous system a transducer that would convert unknown sense X to a sensation I could consciously feel.
I placed a glass of water on a table and practiced moving my hand slowly back and forth in front of it, imagining a tremendous pressure pushing against the palm of my hand as it passed the water. After a few minutes practice I began to actually feel it with my hand. Presumably this was the power of suggestion. I repeated for about 10 minutes with my eyes closed, knowing where the water was. I went through this routine 3 nights in a row, and by the third night the pressure feeling seemed very tangible and seemed to come unbidden.
So the next night I had a friend test me in a restaurant. She placed a glass of water on the table in front of me while I covered my ears so I wouldn't hear her movements. Then with my eyes closed I slowly swept my hand across in front of me until I felt the pressure sensation, and when I opened my eyes the water was in front of my hand.
At her request I tried to do it again, but this time I felt nothing. It turned out there was no glass there -- she had tried to fool me and was holding it under the table. We laughed about it and I never did any further experimenting. The results were probably just coincidence, but interesting.
Re:Chose a sense (Score:3, Interesting)