I've been trying to figure out a way to give sight to the blind using technology. Though it may seem like a far fetched idea, thankfully, I'm not the only one giving it some thought.
Theoretically speaking, everyone who sees could be seeing something completely different than someone else looking at the same thing, and I'm not talking about the feelings they have attached with that thing... I mean it could totally look different.
It just hit me a little while ago that sight is just an interpretation of energy and because no two people are alike, not even twins, each person probably does interpret that energy differently. For a blind person to see, it doesn't need to "look" the same way as it does for anyone else.
Store and protect components for sight in ocular cavities where the body has the area designated to protect sight.
Stimulus (to any part of the body, brain, muscle, organ (skin?)) is necessary to interpret energy. Two important factors of this energy interpretation would be the number of variations the energy can be outputted from the device, and the number of variations that can be detected (perhaps would grow sensitivity with time/use) by the body part it's connected to. Perhaps that sensitivity of that body part may grow (quicker) and be more efficient if there was a type of deprivation enforced on the area designated to interpret visual signals.
--- Main article above, side notes below ---
As a side note, this technology could be applied to other forms of energy detection too, such as infrared (thermal), ultraviolet, x-ray and more...
The deprivation as mentioned in the main article above may not be necessary, but I was thinking it may help because it seems when things are exposed to one thing such as hands to a shovel often, calices seem to build and take away sensitivity towards softer materials... So the more focused the stimuli area is on an action, the less it will spread sensitivity to other things...
In my research to find technology that created an image, I found someone using this very principal in a technology called "BrainPort"...
From the same source I found someone who interprets physical space with echolocation...
I find the echolocation the most amazing, specifically because it uses the human body to interepret something in a different way... However things such as color, or non-physical or sound-making objects can not be detected... It seems like something new, but I think many blind (and not blind) people do it, especially by tapping walking sticks... They may not realize they're creating an image, but subconsciously they probably use it, because it most likely is there... If they don't realize (or have never thought to believe, or have such a predefined definition of sight), then they may in fact be hindering their echolocation/sight by not recognizing it and tending to it as a very useful skill. Everyone knows there's most likely a person behind them when they hear a voice behind them of a person and they can usually judge how far away the person is... It's called spatial awareness... We're all doing it... Spatial awareness is USUALLY achieved through many senses, even the nose... Ever wonder why you wouldn't want to be "upwind" from a pack of starving wolves? If you smell a fart and the winds blowing from your left... You can tell that there's SOMETHING, even if you're not sure what the smell is from towards your left... Then you hear a sound of rumbling... So it may be a car or a factory... As you get closer the smell intensifies and you smell rubber... so it seems like a car peeling wheels, but you get even closer and you hear "clonks" and "klings" and distant yelling of men... Odds are without seeing it you can say it's some type of factory or construction site.
Disclaimer: These are just some of my opinions and thoughts on the subject... I'm not trying to be egotistical though at times it may seem that I demand things I say are right... They're merely what my thoughts happen to be, likely SEEMING right to me based on my life knowledge... As far as I know, the world could be flat, though it SEEMS round. My mind is open. Too open? Matter of opinion, likely no matter what time tells.
Seeing for the blind