Implant Translates Written Words To Braille, Right On the Retina 75
An anonymous reader writes "For the first time, blind people could read street signs with a device that translates letters into Braille and beams the results directly onto a person's eye." According to the article, "In a trial conducted on a single patient who already used the [predecessor] device, the person was able to correctly read Braille letters up to 89 percent of the time, and most of the inaccuracy appeared when the participant misread a single letter. The user was able to read one word a second."
Missing (Score:5, Funny)
"For the first time, blind people could read street signs with a device that translates letters into Braille and beams the results directly onto a person's eye."
There's something missing here. I can't... quite... put my finger on it. I'm sure I'll get it in a minute.
Re:Missing (Score:4, Funny)
You missed .. reading the article. No worries, just click on the link and you'll be fine.
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Nothing to see here folks, move along...
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You missed .. reading the article. No worries, just click on the link and you'll be fine.
I was making a joke about the poor summary by the submitter and miserable lack of editorial quality by the approver. And I'd click on the link but someone sent me a youtube of a cat. Humor is such a subjective thing. So, a man walks into a bar...
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"You'll put your eye out, kid!"
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You should have said: I didn't see the link
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Braille : Small sharp dots.
Retina : Sensitive and fragile human organ.
"Hey, what are you doing ?"
"We are giving you the new reading aid for the blind."
"But I'm not blind !"
"You will be."
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They could be rounded, but Apple would want 47 squazillion dollars.
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Why not just use the letter? (Score:4, Interesting)
I was always under the impression that the braille language is meant to be touched, not "read" via sight. Wouldn't it make more sense to just project the letters into the person's retina vs. the dots for Braille?
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I was always under the impression that the braille language is meant to be touched, not "read" via sight. Wouldn't it make more sense to just project the letters into the person's retina vs. the dots for Braille?
because the blind people do NOT know what the letter is usually, but they know braille.
don't need to retrain them to use the device, i'm sure one that display letters would be made later.
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because the blind people do NOT know what the letter is usually, but they know braille.
Where? Every blind person I have known could read letters on a plastic sheet, and write using a special scratching pen. Not to say anything about using a tactile display for zooming in on computer displays.
While Braille may be good (but not great) for finger reading, and has lots of momentum, it doesn't mean Braille is good for eye reading.
Our latin letters probably aren't the best either, but at least they contain enough extra information that the letters tend to be readable even if partially obscured,
Re:Why not just use the letter? (Score:4, Interesting)
I was always under the impression that the braille language is meant to be touched, not "read" via sight. Wouldn't it make more sense to just project the letters into the person's retina vs. the dots for Braille?
because the blind people do NOT know what the letter is usually, but they know braille.
don't need to retrain them to use the device, i'm sure one that display letters would be made later.
People with retinitis pigmentosa are formerly sighted. It's not a given that they know braille and almost a given that they can recognized standard letters. Braille was chosen because of the crudity of the device.
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I guess the trials are being done with braille, but eventually they will be able to project whatever font the user wants, even *shudder* comic sans.
Re:Why not just use the letter? (Score:4, Informative)
In the case of people born blind, they were only taught to read braille. It might actually be more difficult for someone to learn a brand new character set AND adjust to "seeing" the words.
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Re:Why not just use the letter? (Score:5, Informative)
I'd also go with the fact that braille is 6-bit byte binary. That's about as simple i/o as you can get in this area.
Re:Why not just use the letter? (Score:5, Insightful)
Braille is a six-bit binary code. This was done largely because the previous system -- raised type being "read" by fingers -- was slow and inadequate. Whether the input comes through your fingertips or through the optic nerve matters little. If the bandwidth is low, it helps a lot of the content is pre-digitized. That's what Braille does.
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It was both. Check it out yourself [brailler.com].
One modest improvement I have seen was a book with both Braille, and printed letters in the same position. This way, both sighted and blind people could read the same book, at the same time. The blind will be unaware of the print, and the sighted will see only deformations of the paper.
The blind know braille but maybe not latin letters (Score:5, Insightful)
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Nope, it looks like this: â
ââzâ"â' âââââ'ââ'ââz âââzâzâ'â--âZâ
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Sorry. I naïvely expected Slashdot to do something right, and not mangle my text input beyond all recognition. Slashdot filters out Braille letters even if entered in HTML entity form, so what I tried to enter does not seem possible.
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No, that's an E. A is di-dah.
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No maybe about it. *OF COURSE* they know Latin letters, to read embossed lettering on signs where no one's bothered with Braille.
I never saw Braille until coming to the US. Now, I see it in elevators, select train station support beams indicating the station's name, and some entrances to buildings. It's magical enough seeing blind people move about freely crossing streets, and navigating their way around a city. Consider that the danger of edges in train platforms is exponentially higher to them, as well as the more mundane uncertainty on what TRAIN they are boarding, as well as the exact number of stops they must count before gettin
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Really? So what's the other variable, the one that increases arithmetically as the danger follows a geometric progression?
On the Brussels metro there are paths laid out with different textured floor tiles.
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Sure, if you want to make them learn an entire new alphabet they're never going to use in any other context.
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What if they wanted to write for sighted people?
Are there blind people who can do handwriting? I guess it must be pretty hard to learn if you've always been blind, but since sighted people can write while looking elsewhere ones who become blind can probably remember how to do it.
Re:a trial of one (Score:5, Insightful)
These aren't drug trials here, you don't need a large sample size to determine probable effects. The guy is blind. If he can suddenly read after using this device we can be pretty certain the device is responsible.
Re:a trial of one (Score:5, Funny)
i think we need a double blind study before we can be certain.
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color me impressed with their extensive research. Why do people rush to publish such limited results?
So they put this device in a blind person and now he can read.
You are seriously arguing that something ELSE might be the cause of his being able to read? What else are you convinced is causing this instead?
They know exactly what method the device works by, and so know exactly which forms of blindness this will and will not work with. Those who's retinas do not function but the neurons still do.
Do you make more than one prototype once your first prototype shows the basic method works? Why would you do tha
An army of one (Score:4, Funny)
Do you make more than one prototype once your first prototype shows the basic method works? Why would you do that?
Pickle's worried about the placebo effect.
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inb4 the "correlation not causation" 'tards.
flashback to flash sound ads (Score:2)
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Printed braille (Score:1)
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"very good!": (Score:2)
10 (padding)
11 (padding)
very (contracted)
11 (padding)
11 (padding)
00 (padding)
"go" (contracted)
10 (padding)
01 (padding)
10 (padding)
"o"
11 (padding)
01 (padding)
00 (padding)
"d"
00 (padding)
11 (padding)
10 (padding)
"!"
*padding for line-quota
Another Great Slashdot Summary (Score:2, Insightful)
"An anonymous reader writes 'For the first time, blind people could read street signs with a device that translates letters into Braille and beams the results directly onto a person's eye.'"
Actual Article:
"The technology, used primarily for patients with retinal pigmentosis which causes patients to lose the use of their retina but to still have working neurons, can take up to 10 seconds to convert a single letter and minutes to read a single word, and can only be used with words
Re:Another Great Slashdot Summary (Score:5, Informative)
If you read a bit further in the article, you'll note the part you quoted is the description of the PREVIOUS model device.
The CURRENT model, which the summary is talking about, being an improvement to the original, CAN read street signs and at one letter a second.
I use caps since you don't obviously don't read everything presented :P
Re:Another Great Slashdot Summary (Score:5, Funny)
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Slashdot Summary: "An anonymous reader writes 'For the first time, blind people could read street signs with a device that translates letters into Braille and beams the results directly onto a person's eye.'" Actual Article: "The technology, used primarily for patients with retinal pigmentosis which causes patients to lose the use of their retina but to still have working neurons, can take up to 10 seconds to convert a single letter and minutes to read a single word, and can only be used with words that are printed in a large font and held up close to a person's face. Street signs, for example, cannot be read. " __
Read on. That part describes an older generation device. With the new device, implanted in just one patient, they demonstrated that the patient COULD read street signs and read much faster than the old device, which had an output that to be read with the fingers.
One word per second (Score:5, Funny)
Beware ..... of ...... the ......vicious .......dog.......
Auggghhh!
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Being blind is fine (Score:2)
I was legally blind for 2 years.
I am fortunate to be able to see again.
Think about how it feels to lose your sight.
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I got mugged a long time ago in D.C. i had to learn Braile to be on the safe side. Not completely blind but blind enough to realise the situation.
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How did you get it back? Surgery or time?
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Actually both.
89% of the time, it works every time (Score:3, Insightful)
"In a trial conducted on a single patient who already used the Argus II device, the person was able to correctly read Braille letters up to 89 percent of the time, and most of the inaccuracy appeared when the participant misread a single letter."
Suck it, Apple (Score:5, Funny)
Now THIS is a retina display!