saw this and it sounded kind of interesting so I thought others would like
to hear too. I got this from:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/im
agery.htm
Its really cooll if you ask me.
Sound-Induced Mental Imagery for the Blind
« The vOICe Home Page
Visual imagery may be loosely defined as visual mental processing that
resembles
the perceptual mental processing normally induced by the eyes, but now
occurring
in the absence of direct sensory stimuli from the eyes. In my definition this
visual mental processing may be characterized by certain (conscious,
subjective)
experiences, but also by vision-related cognitive processes and
representations
in the brain that are not, or not directly, accessible to consciousness.
The vOICe for mental imagery: seeing with your ears.
Visual imagery encompasses (the visual aspects of) dreaming, visual memory,
(cognitive) imagination, and any visual mental (re)constructions involved
in the
latest information-rich sensory substitution technology for the blind.
In the literature, the term mental imagery is often used almost as an alias
for
visual imagery due to the attention given to vision, although strictly
speaking
one should reserve the mental imagery term for more general use, including,
e.g., auditory imagination, imagining sounds. On the other hand, with sensory
substitution for the blind the internal mental representations may be, but
need
not be, truly visual in terms of quasi-pictorial or "screen-like" internal
representations, so to leave this issue open it may be better to speak of
mental
imagery rather than just visual imagery here. Therefore, we will mainly use
the
mental imagery term from now on, although we use and apply it only in the
context of vision and vision substitution.
Note that with sensory substitution for the blind the mental processing and
experience will in fact be much less subjective than with most of the other
forms of mental imagery, because it is again bound rather directly and
tightly
to sensory input, though not from the eyes this time, but from a substituting
auditory display or a tactile (haptic) display. The imagery content is set
mainly by the alternative sensory input and less directly by conscious
control -
although one can of course focus attention to parts of the perception or of
any
corresponding short term sensory memory (sensory buffer) as well as control
where the alternate input device is being "pointed at".
The topic and concept of mental imagery has been much discussed and debated
in
the literature, but so far mainly in a philosophical and psychological
setting.
This makes that although some publications do address the meaning of mental
imagery to, for instance, the congenitally blind (e.g., John Kennedy),
surprisingly little has been published about the relevant mental imagery
questions as now posed by new technology options for substituting one sensory
stream by another. This is most unfortunate, because state-of-the-art vision
substitution technology, based on camera or sonar sensor input and auditory
or
tactile display output, poses very concrete and socially relevant questions
about (the limitations of) mental imagery, and the alternate sensory
induction
thereof, questions that should be leading to significant follow-up in
psychological theory, prediction and experiment. See also the SIGGRAPH 98
panel
presentation on this topic.
Historically, part of the debate on mental imagery has circled around the
behaviorist criticism on the non-provable existence of subjective experiences
(e.g., Watson). With modern brain-scanning techniques like PET and fMRI,
which
show increasingly reliable correlates between the subjective and the
objective,
this fundamental scientific criticism starts to lose ground. Another source
of
much debate has been the concept of quasi-pictorial or "screen-like" visual
imagery as a (conscious) experience, "versus" or supplemented by the
underlying
(partly non-conscious) visual processing and representation needed to do the
coding or decoding (notably Stephen Kosslyn). It seems likely that
neuroscience
will help disentangle these issues in the forthcoming years, and help clarify
which ideas and categories turn out to be mainly conceptual artefacts of
culture
and philosophy, and which ideas can be demonstrated to have a locatable
neural
substrate. For instance, the relations and distinctions between short term
visual memory (iconic memory) and spatial processing with its working
memory (as
used in navigation) are currently subject to intensive neuroscientific
research.
The vOICe vision substitution technology, as presented on this web site, is
about a proposed new mental imagery approach via sound-induced
visualisation or
"perceptualization", for which real-time hardware has been developed, as
well as
a multimodal Java applet demonstrator and fully integrated video sonification
software in the form of The vOICe Learning Edition. Having been developed
as an
experimental system for auditory image representations, it is intended as a
step
towards a vision substitution device for the blind. Presently, The vOICe
offers
a first order approach consistent with basic psychophysical knowledge about
the
human hearing system, while containing a sufficiently large set of
parameters to
allow for much of the subsequent second order fine-tuning for improved
perceptual performance as more knowledge about human auditory processing and
perception becomes available. See also the auditory model page. The big
question
in the context of mental imagery is to what extent The vOICe approach can
indeed
be used to replace regular vision via sound-induced mental imagery.
Sound-induced mental imagery of visual information
Literature on The vOICe approach: Meijer, P.B.L., ``An Experimental System
for
Auditory Image Representations,'' IEEE Transactions on Biomedical
Engineering,
Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 112-121, Feb 1992. Reprinted in the 1993 IMIA Yearbook of
Medical Informatics, pp. 291-300. Electronic version of full paper available
on-line.
A good entry point to mental imagery and its history in science, including
many
references, is the web site of Nigel Thomas on Mental Imagery, Consciousness,
and Cognition. For more information on The vOICe technology, visit The vOICe
Home Page.
Copyright © 1996 - 1999 Peter B.L. Meijer
saw this and it sounded kind of interesting so I thought others would like
to hear too. I got this from:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/im
agery.htm
Its really cooll if you ask me.
Sound-Induced Mental Imagery for the Blind
« The vOICe Home Page
Visual imagery may be loosely defined as visual mental processing that
resembles
the perceptual mental processing normally induced by the eyes, but now
occurring
in the absence of direct sensory stimuli from the eyes. In my definition this
visual mental processing may be characterized by certain (conscious,
subjective)
experiences, but also by vision-related cognitive processes and
representations
in the brain that are not, or not directly, accessible to consciousness.
The vOICe for mental imagery: seeing with your ears.
Visual imagery encompasses (the visual aspects of) dreaming, visual memory,
(cognitive) imagination, and any visual mental (re)constructions involved
in the
latest information-rich sensory substitution technology for the blind.
In the literature, the term mental imagery is often used almost as an alias
for
visual imagery due to the attention given to vision, although strictly
speaking
one should reserve the mental imagery term for more general use, including,
e.g., auditory imagination, imagining sounds. On the other hand, with sensory
substitution for the blind the internal mental representations may be, but
need
not be, truly visual in terms of quasi-pictorial or "screen-like" internal
representations, so to leave this issue open it may be better to speak of
mental
imagery rather than just visual imagery here. Therefore, we will mainly use
the
mental imagery term from now on, although we use and apply it only in the
context of vision and vision substitution.
Note that with sensory substitution for the blind the mental processing and
experience will in fact be much less subjective than with most of the other
forms of mental imagery, because it is again bound rather directly and
tightly
to sensory input, though not from the eyes this time, but from a substituting
auditory display or a tactile (haptic) display. The imagery content is set
mainly by the alternative sensory input and less directly by conscious
control -
although one can of course focus attention to parts of the perception or of
any
corresponding short term sensory memory (sensory buffer) as well as control
where the alternate input device is being "pointed at".
The topic and concept of mental imagery has been much discussed and debated
in
the literature, but so far mainly in a philosophical and psychological
setting.
This makes that although some publications do address the meaning of mental
imagery to, for instance, the congenitally blind (e.g., John Kennedy),
surprisingly little has been published about the relevant mental imagery
questions as now posed by new technology options for substituting one sensory
stream by another. This is most unfortunate, because state-of-the-art vision
substitution technology, based on camera or sonar sensor input and auditory
or
tactile display output, poses very concrete and socially relevant questions
about (the limitations of) mental imagery, and the alternate sensory
induction
thereof, questions that should be leading to significant follow-up in
psychological theory, prediction and experiment. See also the SIGGRAPH 98
panel
presentation on this topic.
Historically, part of the debate on mental imagery has circled around the
behaviorist criticism on the non-provable existence of subjective experiences
(e.g., Watson). With modern brain-scanning techniques like PET and fMRI,
which
show increasingly reliable correlates between the subjective and the
objective,
this fundamental scientific criticism starts to lose ground. Another source
of
much debate has been the concept of quasi-pictorial or "screen-like" visual
imagery as a (conscious) experience, "versus" or supplemented by the
underlying
(partly non-conscious) visual processing and representation needed to do the
coding or decoding (notably Stephen Kosslyn). It seems likely that
neuroscience
will help disentangle these issues in the forthcoming years, and help clarify
which ideas and categories turn out to be mainly conceptual artefacts of
culture
and philosophy, and which ideas can be demonstrated to have a locatable
neural
substrate. For instance, the relations and distinctions between short term
visual memory (iconic memory) and spatial processing with its working
memory (as
used in navigation) are currently subject to intensive neuroscientific
research.
The vOICe vision substitution technology, as presented on this web site, is
about a proposed new mental imagery approach via sound-induced
visualisation or
"perceptualization", for which real-time hardware has been developed, as
well as
a multimodal Java applet demonstrator and fully integrated video sonification
software in the form of The vOICe Learning Edition. Having been developed
as an
experimental system for auditory image representations, it is intended as a
step
towards a vision substitution device for the blind. Presently, The vOICe
offers
a first order approach consistent with basic psychophysical knowledge about
the
human hearing system, while containing a sufficiently large set of
parameters to
allow for much of the subsequent second order fine-tuning for improved
perceptual performance as more knowledge about human auditory processing and
perception becomes available. See also the auditory model page. The big
question
in the context of mental imagery is to what extent The vOICe approach can
indeed
be used to replace regular vision via sound-induced mental imagery.
Sound-induced mental imagery of visual information
Literature on The vOICe approach: Meijer, P.B.L., ``An Experimental System
for
Auditory Image Representations,'' IEEE Transactions on Biomedical
Engineering,
Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 112-121, Feb 1992. Reprinted in the 1993 IMIA Yearbook of
Medical Informatics, pp. 291-300. Electronic version of full paper available
on-line.
A good entry point to mental imagery and its history in science, including
many
references, is the web site of Nigel Thomas on Mental Imagery, Consciousness,
and Cognition. For more information on The vOICe technology, visit The vOICe
Home Page.
Copyright © 1996 - 1999 Peter B.L. Meijer
Scott D. Hendershot
Media, Pennsylvania
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