
Blind people ‘read’ letters that are traced on their brains with electricity - EndXA
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01421-6
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EndXA
Original study:
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286742...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867420304967)

Abstract:

> A visual cortical prosthesis (VCP) has long been proposed as a strategy for
> restoring useful vision to the blind, under the assumption that visual
> percepts of small spots of light produced with electrical stimulation of
> visual cortex (phosphenes) will combine into coherent percepts of visual
> forms, like pixels on a video screen. We tested an alternative strategy in
> which shapes were traced on the surface of visual cortex by stimulating
> electrodes in dynamic sequence. In both sighted and blind participants,
> dynamic stimulation enabled accurate recognition of letter shapes predicted
> by the brain’s spatial map of the visual world. Forms were presented and
> recognized rapidly by blind participants, up to 86 forms per minute. These
> findings demonstrate that a brain prosthetic can produce coherent percepts
> of visual forms.

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unexaminedlife
This ted talk still has my mind blown. Not sure what the current state of the
art is on this, but I find this amazing even today.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_nirenberg_a_prosthetic_eye_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_nirenberg_a_prosthetic_eye_to_treat_blindness)

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tomc1985
Years ago I read about something like this. A blind man was even able to drive
a car (I think it was the researcher's) around a parking lot. IIRC it had a
limited framerate so he wouldn't be able to actually drive anywhere with it

I find the encoding of such a signal to be fascinating. Somewhere someone has
mapped out the 'protocol' of the eye-brain interface! I would love to know
more.

~~~
slfnflctd
> Somewhere someone has mapped out the 'protocol' of the eye-brain interface!

I think it's more accurate to say they've tinkered their way into figuring out
a few basic commands that can make the system predictably do a handful of
things. Still no color, very limited resolution, and low framerate as you
mentioned.

We've probably got over 99% more of that 'protocol' yet to discover. But at
least we've got our foot in the door.

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ta1234567890
Reminded me of this NPR story
([https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/378577902/how-to-
be...](https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/378577902/how-to-become-
batman)) in which they show that a blind person can technically see through
hearing (echolocation), and then poise the (philosophical) question, what is
seeing? Pretty fascinating.

~~~
tines
I think seeing is pretty easy to define, it's the decoding of high-density
two-dimensional information encoded in a wave. High-density differentiates it
from feeling/smelling, and two-dimensional differentiates it from
hearing/smelling. Is that definition missing anything relevant?

~~~
ta1234567890
> Is that definition missing anything relevant?

Yes, wide-acceptance. Google the definition of seeing, does it resemble what
you wrote?

Ask a lot of people what seeing is, would they give the same definition as
yours?

Historically, seeing has been mostly regarded as what we are capable of doing
with our eyes.

Also, in your definition, what is doing the decoding? Is the retina decoding,
is the optic nerve decoding, are each individual cell decoding, are the
individual neurons decoding? And what does it mean to decode?

Definitions require agreement, not just a seemingly factual description. At
least if you want the definition to be accepted. Which is in the end what
defines a definition.

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anang
I am totally convinced that we will essentially invent telepathy within the
next few decades.

We’ve already made strides with interacting with a computer via brain signals,
if we can build simple text interfaces (like this) that interface directly
with the brain we have all the pieces needed to silently send text messages
using only thought.

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WilTimSon
My mind immediately goes to horrible implications like telepathic spam.
Conversations getting interrupted with ads, screaming directly into your
brain.

~~~
peterlk
> Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century? > > Fry: Well, sure, but not
> in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball
> games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the
> sky. But not in dreams. No, sir-ee!

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wdb
Thank you for posting! Always fascinates me that we still find out how to
brain works. Always get the feeling there is still so much left to discover
about the human body :)

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mifreewil
Hook up some cameras to Neuralink[1] via the developer API (tongue in cheek)
and boom, sight!

[1] [https://www.neuralink.com/](https://www.neuralink.com/)

~~~
101404
Neutralink will be one of the most exciting things in the decades to come.

Plans are to install the first chips with over 1000 connectors within a year.

~~~
slfnflctd
For those who haven't read it, the 'Wait But Why' extensive blogpost on
Neuralink (warning, it's super long, I think it has enough of a wordcount to
qualify as a novel if it was one) is probably the most fascinating thing I've
read in the last 5 years:

[https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html](https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html)

A lot of it is speculation by necessity, and I'm sure some is outdated now,
but it's also packed with facts and the reasoning seems sound. If anyone knows
whether any of it has been debunked, I would be interested in that as well.

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annoyingnoob
Watch out for the overflow, Johnny Mnemonic.

~~~
dillonmckay
All the best hackers are dolphins?

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aaron695
The actual journal article (linked in the article) has more info, it actually
seems they did something interesting.

The calibration was a cool -

[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.033](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.033)

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KuriousCat
I hope to see a non invasive way to do this soon, either via nano-bots or some
form of magnetic stimulation. Years ago, our hard-disks got smaller, it is
time for MRI and transcranial stimulation.

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seemslegit
That's a pretty high claim, shouldn't it be possible to demonstrate this
effect on blindfolded sighted people ?

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djohnston
things like this and BCIs are some of the most exciting tech products in
existence, IMO

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garmaine
So do sighted people...

