Eyeborg
An eyeborg or eye-borg is an electronic eye that allows people to hear colors. It is mostly used by blind people or by people with color blindness. It works by using a head mounted camera that reads the colors directly in front of a person, and converts them into musical notes.[1]
The first eyeborg was made in England in 2003 by Adam Montandon in collaboration with colourblind artist Neil Harbisson. The invention won a British award in Innovation (Submerge 2004)[2] and a European award in Content Tools and Interface Design (Europrix 2004).[3] In 2007, Peter Kese, a software developer from Slovenia, made further developments to the eyeborg by increasing the number of colors to 360 and adding color intensity through different volume levels.[4] Matias Lizana, a student from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya is currently developing the eyeborg into a smaller chip as part of his final year project. The new chip will allow users to hear colors in stereo and to embed the device.[5]
Eyeborg Media
The Harbisson's Sonochromatic Music Scale
Blind Ecuadorians using eyeborgs
Other websites
- Eyeborg Website Archived 2018-09-08 at the Wayback Machine Eyeborg chip development site
- Cyborg Enables Color-Blind Artist to Hear His Palette Article about an eyeborg user on Wired (USA 2008)
- Eyeborg user example on The Sunday Times (UK, 2008)
- Seeing things in a different light Information from BBC (UK, 2005)
- Neil Harbisson's personal website
References
- ↑ Alfredo M. Ronchi: Eculture: Cultural Content in the Digital Age. Springer (New York, 2009). p.319 ISBN 978-3-540-75273-8
- ↑ Submerge Innovation Award (Bristol, 2004)[dead link]
- ↑ Europrix Europrix Awards
- ↑ Harbisson, Neil. "Painting by ear" Modern Painters, The International Contemporary Art Magazine pp.70-73. New York, June 2008.
- ↑ Sanchis, Ima. "La veo en blanco y negro pero la oigo en colores"[dead link], La Contra de La Vanguardia, 10 July 2010.