Light Based Hearing

Zackhood88

Ok, I am not even remotely a physicist. However I did have this thought.
Is it possible to hear with your eyes. Can a device be rendered in such a way to transmit light so that when the eyes saw it, that it would be interpreted as Audio not video so to speak.

Just general curiosity!

Any comments are welcome. Even the "Your a moron" kind
Thanks

DaveC426913

Sure. Depends on how much and how intrusively you want to rewire the brain.

A less intrusive thing to do would be to set up cameras that see ahead, then convert that signal into an audio tone - or better yet, a haptic (touch) pattern. The reason touch would be better than hearing is that touch, like sight, is a 2-dimensional plane, whereas hearing is one-dimensional.

TheOtherDave

I might be interpreting your question a bit too literally, but you'd have to give your eyes a serious upgrade before you could see the vibrations in the air.

DaveC426913

If you were to take his question literally, you will see that he presumes that what the eyes will be detecting is light ("..transmit light so that when the eyes saw it.."), but that it is only after the light is detected that it is interpreted as audio.

Evo

I'm pretty sure the brain would need to be re-wired as in a synesthete.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar01/synesthesia.aspx

My oldest daughter sees numbers as colors. My youngest sees geometric shapes in everything.

Ryan_m_b

Years ago a friend of mines mum who works in a drosophila lab produced a lineage where the visual and smell processing was reversed. They saw smells and smelt colours apparently though I have no idea how they did this or how they knew it was done correctly.

TheOtherDave

Hmm... It is possible that I might not have interpreted his question literally enough...