Videos
Overview of haptic sensory substitution
Operating principles of a visual sensory substitution system. Annotated demonstration of the haptic transducer array as sensory substitution for visual impairment. Flavin et al., Nature, 2024
Navigating an obstacle course with haptic sensory substitution
Visual sensory substitution for obstacle-course navigation. Example demonstration of navigation strategies used by a blindfolded participant (male) traversing an obstacle course with feedback from the visual sensory substitution system. The participant wore a LiDAR-enabled smartphone around their neck to continuously map their physical surroundings. Apart from the haptic device, rendering smartphone-derived sensory information as patterns of indentation on the back of their neck, no other feedback was given to the participant. The participant was given no previous information on the path configured in this video before recording. Flavin et al., Nature, 2024
Finding a chair with haptic sensory substitution
Visual sensory substitution for object identification. Example demonstration of navigation strategies used by a blindfolded participant (female) locating a chair with feedback from the visual sensory substitution system. The participant wore a LiDAR-enabled smartphone around their neck to map and classify their physical surroundings. Coloured surfaces on the smartphone indicate object classification (blue, chairs; purple, desks; grey, doors). The haptic array included a torsional unit that informed the user when they were facing a chair. The participant was given no previous information on the location of the chair before recording and they were given no other feedback apart from torsion and indentation from the haptic array. Flavin et al., Nature, 2024