How the Brain of a Blind Person Rewires Itself

Do blind people really have a sharpened sense of hear ing? What is theexplanation? This article reports the work of Ger man researchers who looked at blind people’s brains to try to answer these questions. They found out that indeed, blind peo ple can under­stand speech even if sped up beyond the maximum rate that sighted people can understand. This seemed pos sible because the brain areas devoted to vision in people with eye sight turned out to be responding to speech in blind people.

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A Sharper Future for Retinal Implants

Researchers grow neurons on a photosensitive polymer hybrid.
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A retinal implant restores vision by sending a signal from a video camera attached to a pair of glasses to electrodes implanted on the back of a person's retina. But the silicon or platinum components typically used to for the electrodes tend to produce images of limited quality, and can leave the retina scarred.
Organic semiconducting polymers are softer and more flexible than silicon, and they have useful mechanical and electrical properties, making them ideal for biomedical applications. In fact, they are already used in some medical devices such as glucose sensors and the electrodes that record neural activity in the brain. Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have now shown how organic polymer could be used to make better electrodes for retinal implants.
One of the first possible applications for a polymer-neuron interface could be in optogenics, says Guglielmo Lanzani, a professor at IIT who led the research, which is published in the January 18 issue of Nature Communications. "Our short-term goal was to establish communication between an [organic] semiconductor and a neuron," says Lanzani. 

The differences between your eyes and your camera

As a photographer, I'm often intrigued by the physics of how photography is similar (and different) to how my eyes work - so I figured it was time to write a little article about how it all hangs together.
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Nintendo: Children Under 6 Shouldn't Play 3-D Games On 3DS

I find Nintendo's concerns hard to believe...
UvealBlues

TOKYO—Nintendo Co. has issued a warning that children under the age of 6 shouldn't play three-dimensional games on its soon-to-be-released hand-held game machine, as looking at 3-D images for a long period of time can have a harmful effect on the growth of young children's eyes.

In the eyes (and brains) of the beholder

It’s common knowledge that an individual’s thoughts and emotions differ from one person to another, but it has long been assumed that perception of the visual world is usually similar from person to person.

The primary visual cortex—the area at the back of the brain responsible for processing what is seen—is known to differ in size by up to three times from one individual to the next.

Now, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London have shown for the first time that the size of this area affects how individuals perceive their environment.

A replacement for walking sticks for the visually impaired

From Israeli designer, Norm Klopper

Deaf Cats Have Enhanced Vision

Recent research explains how the deaf can have extraordinary sight. 

Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World

The findings provided by these eye-trackers so far (the first light enough for children to wear) suggest that infants may be more capable of understanding and acting on what they see than had been thought. “Quick gazes at obstacles in front of them or at their mothers’ faces may be all they need to get the information they want. They seem to be surprisingly efficient,” said John Franchak, a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at New York University.

Although vision might largely seem effortless to us, in reality we actively choose what we look at, making about two to four eye movements every second for some 150,000 motions daily, said Karen Adolph, also a developmental psychologist at N.Y.U. “Vision is not passive,” she said. “We actively coordinate our eye movements with the motions of our hands and bodies.”

FDA Approves VisionCare's Implantable Miniature Telescope

Saratoga, CA based VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, Inc. has announced FDA approval of company's Implantable Miniature Telescope, which we have been following since 2005. The device is designed to treat end-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as part of the CentraSight treatment program, in which one of a patient's eyes is implanted with the telescope. The implant will then enlarge images, causing them to be projected onto more healthy areas of the patient's retina. This reduces the negative effect of the AMD blind spot in the patient's vision.

Scientists to present car for blind drivers next year

US Scientists and the National Federation of the Blind are developing a car for the blind and will present a prototype next year.

The vehicle will be fitted with technology that allows a blind person to drive independently, the NFB and Virginia Tech University said.

Non-visual aids include sensors indicating turns in the road via vibrating gloves.

Puffs of compressed air on the face will alert the driver to obstacles.

Other aids to be fitted include a vibrating vest to give feedback on speed and a steering wheel with audio cues and spoken commands indicating the car's direction.