Sensory Substitution Device Enables the Blind to "See" Colors and Shapes
From: Medical Design Technology - 02/06/2014

Using auditory or tactile stimulation, Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs)
provide representations of visual information and can help the blind “see”
colors and shapes. SSDs scan images and transform the information into audio
or touch signals that users are trained to understand, enabling them to
recognize the image without seeing it.

The EyeMusic, developed by senior investigator Prof. Amir Amedi, PhD, and his
team at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) and the
Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada at the Hebrew University, scans
an image and uses musical pitch to represent the location of pixels. The
higher the pixel on a vertical plane, the higher the pitch of the musical
note associated with it. Timing is used to indicate horizontal pixel
location. Notes played closer to the opening cue represent the left side of
the image, while notes played later in the sequence represent the right side.
Additionally, color information is conveyed by the use of different musical
instruments to create the sounds: white (vocals), blue (trumpet), red (reggae
organ), green (synthesized reed), yellow (violin); black is represented by
silence.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2014/02/sensory-substitution-device-enables-blind-%E2%80%98see%E2%80%99-colors-and-shapes

Link:
EyeMusic Demonstrator
http://brain.huji.ac.il/site/em.html

Related:
Device Enables Blind to ‘See’ with Ears
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2013/07/device-enables-blind-%E2%80%98see%E2%80%99-ears