Hi Pranav, About VoICE.
Have you used it? I have i4 with latest ios and an android phone with 4.2.2 os. Would I be able to use the app for experimenting navigation? Thanks On 4/16/15, Pranav Lal <pranav....@gmail.com> wrote: > Some of you may find the below paper of interest. > > -----Original Message----- > From: seeingwithsound-bou...@freelists.org > [mailto:seeingwithsound-bou...@freelists.org] On Behalf Of Peter Meijer > Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2015 12:27 AM > To: seeingwithso...@freelists.org > Subject: [The vOICe] Man with restored sight provides new insight into how > vision develops > > Hi All, > > For your information. Appended is today's news release from the University > of Washington, about Mike May. > > Best wishes, > > Peter Meijer > > > Seeing with Sound - The vOICe > http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm > > > Man with restored sight provides new insight into how vision develops. > > By Deborah Bach, News and Information. > > California man Mike May made international headlines in 2000 when his sight > was > restored by a pioneering stem cell procedure after 40 years of blindness. > > But a study published three years after the operation found that the > then-49-year-old could see colors, motion and some simple two-dimensional > shapes, but was incapable of more complex visual processing. > > Hoping May might eventually regain those visual skills, University of > Washington > researchers and colleagues retested him a decade later. But in a paper now > available online in Psychological Science, they report that May -- referred > to in > the study as M.M. -- continues to perform significantly worse than sighted > control group participants. > > The conclusion: May's vision remains very limited 15 years after the > surgeries. > Though disappointing, the results provide valuable information that can help > researchers better understand how vision develops and which visual > processing > tasks are most vulnerable to sight deprivation. > > "With sight-restoration procedures becoming more developed, we're going to > see > more and more cases where people are blind for long periods of time and then > get > their sight back," said senior author Ione Fine, a UW associate professor of > psychology. > > "But we know very little about what happens in their brains during that > period. > That is going to be one of the fundamental questions going forward -- what > happens when the lights are turned off, and what happens when you turn them > back > on?" > > May went blind at age 3 when a jar of chemicals exploded in his face. He > went on > to work for the CIA and became a successful entrepreneur, founding the > Sendero > Group, a company that makes GPS and talking-map products for blind people. > May > is also a motivational speaker and holds the world downhill skiing speed > record, > 65 mph, for a completely blind person. > > But fully restored sight has eluded May, and his unusual case has puzzled > researchers. There were few previous cases of restored vision before his -- > the > last well-documented one was in 1963 -- and scientists knew little about > whether > people whose sight is restored as adults can regain functional vision, and > if > so, how long that might take. > > In the recent tests, May was shown images of household objects and faces, > and > also video clips while his brain responses were measured with fMRI > (functional > magnetic resonance imaging). As with the tests a decade earlier, May did not > have normal brain responses to three-dimensional objects or faces, > consistent > with his inability to make sense of these stimuli. > > Researchers believe that's because May's brain, like those of other people > who > went blind at an early age, has adjusted to respond to other stimuli, such > as > sound or touch. > > "We suspect that Mike lost vision at an age when these brain regions were > able > to take on new roles," said joint first author Jason Webster. "It remains to > be > seen what these areas are doing now." > > May's case is particularly interesting, Fine said, because his blindness > started > when the visual system is already developed, but the ability to perceive > objects > and faces is still evolving. > > "He lost his vision at an age when vision is pretty good, but he was still > young > enough for it to deteriorate," she said. > > The findings, the researchers say, indicate that visual function for tasks > such > as object recognition and face processing continues to develop through > childhood > and early adolescence and remains sensitive to loss of sight for several > years > afterward. > > The good news, said joint first author and UW graduate student Elizabeth > Huber, > is that the findings imply that adults' vision is relatively fixed, meaning > that > as visual losses increase in an aging population, the chances of restoring > useful sight to older people are good. > > "This study is encouraging because it suggests that if someone loses sight > later > in life, it may still be possible to restore relatively normal vision, even > after many years of blindness," she said. > > May told the researchers he uses his other senses to compensate for his poor > vision. > > "I have learned what works with vision and what doesn't, so I really don't > challenge my vision much anymore," he said in the paper. "Where motion or > colors > might be clues, I use my vision. Where details might be required, like > reading > print or recognizing who someone is, I use tactile and auditory techniques." > > Other co-authors are UW psychology professor Geoffrey Boynton; Alyssa Brewer > at > the University of California, Irvine; Donald MacLeod at the University of > California, San Diego; Brian Wandell at Stanford University; and Alex Wade > at > the University of York in the U.K. > > Source URL: > http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/04/15/man-with-restored-sight-provides-new-insight-into-how-vision-develops/ > > To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to seeingwithsound-requ...@freelists.org > with "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. To subscribe > again, send a blank e-mail to seeingwithsound-requ...@freelists.org with > "subscribe" in the subject line, and next reply to the confirmation message. > > > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > -- *************** "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do." EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
