Hearing is Believing

LSC reference:  CM.ex.1.15

In the Physiology of Seeing section, I suggest that you look at the amazing work of Peter Meijer of Philips Electronics in Holland.  He has attempted to create a device which can convert images from a camera into sound which can be interpreted by blind people.  In my opinion, he has not yet succeeded in developing a device which is reliable, but his research and applets are remarkable. 

http://www.visualprosthesis.com/javoice.htm 

On this site there is an applet that converts any doodle into a sound loop.  Additionally, you can load an image into the applet and it will create a sound loop that interprets the image sonically.  He seems to have a version for camera phones.  In some sense it's a technology chasing a need, but many technologies started as novelties, and then found their use later.

His project is to create a camera-based device which can convert realtime images into sound forms.  The idea of "sonification" is very interesting and transformative, and would be a nice interactive activity for this section.