Sensory Substitution: Visual Information via Haptics

Sensory substitution devices compensate for the lack of one sense, such as vision, by conveying information about a person’s environment through the stimulation of another sense, like touch or audition. In this chapter, we introduce a newly developed sensory substitution device (SSD), the Sound of Vision (SOV) device, which acquires visual information via a 3D camera system and conveys it to people with visual impairments through touch and audition. We focus mainly on the haptic stimulation that the system uses, introducing the relevant research and hardware. We raise important design issues for producing functionally relevant sensory substitution, such as training on the SSD, which is vital for externalization and navigation with the SOV system. All-in-all, the SOV system is a highly promising candidate for a successful SSD and is innovative in its simultaneous use of both haptic and auditory information.