Blind 'see with sound': BBC

[Ivan Seeking]

Developed by Dr Peter Meijer, a senior scientist at Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, the system is called The vOICe (the three middle letters standing for "Oh I See").

It works by translating images from a camera on-the-fly into highly complex soundscapes, which are then transmitted to the user over headphones.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3171226.stm

[hypnagogue]

Ingenious! It's doubly impressive that they seem to have the idea actually working functionally.

You know, I'd be curious to try this thing out, just to see what it's like to experience 'vision' in another sensory modality. Kind of evokes thoughts of synaethesiacs.