Hearing Colors
Imagine being totally color-blind, living in a world of greys, being unable to see the difference between red and blue or yellow and green. That's what life is about for Neil Harbisson. He was born with an irreversible condition called achromatopsia, or total color blindness. That would make life difficult for anyone, but Neil is an artist - and the incredible thing is, he paints in color.
When Neil was an art student, he only painted in black, white and grey because that is all he saw. He was very dissatisfied with his paintings. But one day, a young scientist called Adam Montandon visited the college to give a lecture. The two met and when Neil explained his problem, Adam decided to try to find a way to find a way to allow Neil to 'see' colors using sound. Neil thought it was an impossible task, but Adam made a special device that let him 'hear' six colors. This is how it worked: light travels in waves, and different colors of light have different wavelengths. Red has a long wavelength and violet has a short wavelength. Adam used this fact to create a camera that measures the wavelength of the light that enters it and then makes a sound that corresponds to the color of the light. So if the camera sees red, it makes low sound, if it sees violet, it makes a high sound.
Adam has now developed a much more sophisticated device, called Eyeborg, that allows Neil to see 360 different colors. Neil now has Eyeborg implanted in his head and that's way more easy to use like this than wearing a big helmet on your head attached to a laptop in your back pack.
◇ Neil's answers to some questions ◇
Is it comfortable to use?
It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but soon I got used to it.
Is it noisy?
It's noisy , but probably not much nosier than a busy city street.
Does it make some unusual problems or something?
Yes, it does. When I walk in the street people think I'm filming them and they don't like it. Sometimes security guards ask me to leave shops.
What more it gives you besides seeing colors?
Well many people ask what is this and how it works.. So it starts new conversations.
And do you wear it all the time?
Yes it's permanent. I sleep with it, I go to bath with it.. I do everything with it. It's my body part now.
◇Documentary film about him◇
WARNING: Video may contain high frequencies sound.
Video source:
◇THANKS FOR READING◇
Sources:
soundworkscollection.com
blog.lawline.com
-Pj
My husband is color blind he sees the grass as orange, he argues that he could be right and we could be wrong.
Well... He might be right! No one of us knows.. Maybe we all are color-blind and only few people that we think are color-blind they actually aren't?
Your right we never know the grass might be orange
Yes! :)
That android guy kind of scares me. I would think the point where he implanted that thing in his head would get infected.
Well it doesn't look funny to me also.. But I think you'd also wear that if you were colorblind for your whole life and then you'll get a chance to see colors for the first time.
Loved this hearing colors! Remember when I first heard about this and also in a TedTalk. :)
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