cochlear implant analogies in wearables for deaf-blind
FCS
of a long-distant 'Tomorrow's World' (BBC Television,
UK, sci-tech digest magazine broadcast 1970s--1990s)
feature covering environment-responsive glasses and cane
combinations supposed to help visually impaired people
get about independently as pedestrians, not that I've ever
seen such a thing in use in the 15 years since.
The idea was that the glasses also contained a little
speaker hooked up to some sonar-style electronics,
and whilst the audio signal generated was dependent
on immediately proximate surfaces, the idea was that
those without vision could build up a muscle-memory
map of their local area.
Whilst it seems that if it was practicable it would be an
idea practised more widely, it's possible a similar array
of vibrating eletronics such as one might find in a mobile
telephone handset or paging device may have a similar
use strapped to the femurs of those with neither hearing
nor sight--at least to get around the house.
I suspect that an array suitable for voice and speech
learning and cognition might be too invasive to be of much
interest, but in terms of locating rooms and devices and
possibly controls in a personal property and achieving
significantly enhanced autonomy I hope it's of some use,
even if one does need to be one one's feet to benefit.
Certainly anyone loking for a wearable design project is
welcome to run with prototyping. With various options for
directional real-time feedback over the surface area of the
skin quite a range of domestic appliances could be worked
in easily enough.
G DAEB
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