Lumisonic Virtual Hearing System: Owned by Evelyn Glennie?
August 14, 2008 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Misc. Gadgets
Goldsmiths, of the University of London, has developed a software system that translates sound into radiating concentric circles on a screen. The Lumisonic theoretically allows the deaf to “see” sounds and hopefully react and interact with them, and controls how it presents the circles based on the pitch of the input audio.
Dr. Mick Grierson explains:
“If I make a sound and lower the pitch, the rings contract,” said Dr Mick Grierson, from Goldsmiths, University of London, who developed the system.
Lumisonic can respond to computer-generated noises or those from a microphone.
To be real, converting sounds into visual stimuli isn’t exactly new. The real news is that some Scot percussionist named Evelyn Glennie can create a good beat—despite being deaf since she was young. According to various sources, that fact is nearly secondary, thanks to apparent musical ability.
Maybe researchers should concentrate on trying to understand her ability to create and feel sound, without really hearing it, and package it for other deaf people to learn? It would be more practical if deaf people can learn to feel sound, without the help of gadgets. Disclaimer: We’re not deaf, so we may have no frickin’ idea of what we’re writing about.
Hi there,
I hope you don’t mind if I respond to your post.
We used subwoofers to enhance the effect you mention as part of the project at Whitefileds school for the disabled. It’s a great method, but has some limitiations.
The problem is that sound is made up of lots of frequencies – it’s hard to understand this if you’re not experiencing them, and, unlike fundamental vibrations, you can’t detect them if there’s something wrong with your hearing. Also, you can’t get this information from lip reading or lip-reading systems, and you’d need training to get the information from a frequency plot. It’s a significant problem. That’s why we tried this method, and it seems to be a good start.
Thanks for your interest.
Cheers,
Mick