BenUnderwood suffered reticular cancer when he was just three years because of
that his eyes were removed and he lost his vision. As his visual system wasn’t
fully developed, his brain started use the auditory system to guide him through
the outside world. Time went by and he finally could develop a system to map
the things around him; just by “Clicking” a noise with his tongue he uses the
returned sound to create visual images, this system is called Echolocation.
There are
several animals such as, bats, dolphins and Amolops, than are capable to
perceive the wave sounds projected from their selves, then this sounds are
processed generating images from the surroundings; submarines also use the
echolocation system to map the see bottom or scan for nearby objects. The
principle of echolocation and several cases of people that have successfully
achieved it, have leaded Scientifics to conceive the sonar implant, which is a
device very similar to the cochlear implant (that replaces a damaged cochlea in
the ear) this device is surgically implant into the brain cortex to send
electrical signs with information; through this way the brain creates mental
images using the variation between sounds reflected from different objects. 
This new
medical – technological advance would be the solution to deaf people, and to
everyone that has visual problems, but do you think this invent will be applied
for medical purposes in first place, or it will be so expensive that military
industry will use it to increase its power?
I watched this documentary some time ago and I was fascinated about his experience! Is such a wonderful way to prove that blind people are no unable to have a normal life! Sadly, these advances are usually used for military purposes, as you suggested.
ReplyDeleteThere have been so much progress in the field of technology the past few years that we do not know because the information has been used for military purposes or the big companies have kept the secret in order to don't give us the solution to different diseases to make people buy medicines instead of become healthy. Is such a pity, but the truth!