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A blog dealing with sensory substitution and other esoteric concepts and technologies like speech-recognition and chaos theory

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use of vision

Coffee shops, dirty tables and Oreo shakes

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It was the weekend and I was on a family outing. We drifted into a coffee shop and found a table without difficulty. My mother remarked that the table was dirty. I tilted my head by 30 degrees and sure enough I could detect some dark objects on the table. I do not know what they were and did not care to find out. Once the waiter had cleaned the table, I took another look. I got a nice clean sound with no obstructions. I am going to develop the habit of scanning every restaurant table.
It took some thinking to figure out what I was going to drink. I do not like coffee so settled for an Oreo shake. The shake came in a jar like container which was short but had a large diameter. I tilted my head down and saw this cylindrical structure. It was astonishingly dark. It appears that Oreo shakes are brown and do not allow light to pass through them. As I drank the shake, I kept glancing at the container and was able to detect an increase in light. Visual confirmation that I was getting through the shake.

Out the car window: gauging road width

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I was returning home from Connaught Place yesterday evening and was looking out the window of my car using my new mini android phone setup. As described in a previous post, the lens is a little above my left eye and this slightly higher perspective gave me some interesting information.

instead of only looking into cars I was able to see a little above the traffic and gauge the kinds of buildings I was crossing. I have a general idea of how complex shop fronts are and what they look like. at a traffic light, I was able to see three pillars that were inside the portico of a building.

A more interesting revelation was when I was able to tell the width of the road. As in I was able to tell that we had driven onto a narrow road as opposed to the main road. This was because everything appeared nearer. Objects were larger in the view and had a harder sound. Admittedly, the soundscape was extremely complex and I’m not in a position to measure distances but it is still good to know whether I’m going on a main road or on a side road. Yes, I use GPS but sometimes, GPS only gives me street names. The vOICe compliments this information nicely because inner roads and lanes are narrower than main roads..

The face recognition feature is handy. For example, if I detect two faces close together when I look out the car window, it usually means that I am looking at two people riding on a motorbike. This translates into better situational awareness and allows me to enhance my own security. I am in a better position to detect if people are getting too close to my car and to sound the alarm in case the driver has not noticed..

What the vOICe has done for me

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I am occasionally asked “what has the vOICe done for you?” I can think of 8 points right now.

1. It has allowed me to see what I cannot touch. For instance, complex scenes, shapes of items like the moon for which there is no model available at least where I live. I have also scene out the windscreen in a car.

2. I have now begun finding objects that I have dropped using the vOICe. No more groping around for stuff.

3. I have used it to evaluate web page design at my job. The evaluation is not a core component in my job but was important for the project I was working on at that time.

4. I can now perceive things remotely which is very handy especially when moving around. For example, when I visit a new place, I can get far more information by looking around using the vOICe.

5. I can now draw and see what I have drawn.

6. I can participate much much better in family activities like looking at photographs and even in the festival of lights namely diwali. I can now see what my house looks like when it is all lit up! More to the point, I can even capture that image and view it whenever I choose.

7. I have always wanted to be a researcher. The vOICe has given me the opportunity to play that role.

8. I keep discovering newer facets with this program so this list will only grow.