See Different is a new application in the area of sensory substitution. It seems to represent obstacles in your head by panning. I am not sure if the pitch represents height. I suspect it does. For example, I was looking at a door. The left side of the door was probably illuminated so I could sense that there was something there. A computer keyboard was a series of flat uniform tones. Yes, the soundscapes are choppy. I tried looking at the handles of two doors belonging to a cupboard in my study. I heard two beeps one in the left ear and the other just before the right ear.
However, the problem with their approach is that you don’t know the boundaries of the space. The vOICe pans from left to right so you get a better idea of space boundaries since the silences help show you what is dark and the silence could also be an obstacle blocking the light.
To the developers of this application, I submit the following.
- Tell us what you are trying to do.
- We need more detail on the shapes. Just knowing that there is something is not enough. As of now, it is almost like using sonar where you get spatial information.
The vOICe is far superior in terms of the information it gives and remains my primary eye of choice.On the iPhone, this translates into the app called Voice Vision.