How technology is changing blindness: 6 talks on how those who can’t see can drive cars, take photographs and more

Technology TEDTalks

When Ron McCallum was a child, he loved story time. But he was sad not to be able to read a book on his own. It was the 1940s, and McCallum was blind since birth. As his mom told him, “You can’t feel the pictures, and you can’t feel the print on the page.”

“Little did I know that I would be part of a technological revolution that would make that dream come true,” says McCallum, a labor law scholar, in this incredibly sweet talk given at TEDxSydney. “Computers have changed the lives of us all in this room and around the world, but I think they’ve changed the lives of we blind people more than any other group.”

In this talk, McCallum takes us on a tour of the people and technology that allowed him to read — from those who transcribed into braille to the maker of the first blind computer with speech synthesizer, to the inventor behind the Kurzweil reader that scan books and reads them aloud. It’s a fascinating look at something sighted people tend to take for granted.

McCallum certainly has a point — technological innovation has brought some incredible changes for the blind. Below, TED and TEDx talks on more innovations for those who can’t see, some available now and some in the works.

Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers
Much ado has been made about Google’s self-driving car. But Dennis Hong’s creation is a little different — it’s a car which allows non-sighted drivers to get behind the wheel, determine their route and speed, and stay safe with non-visual interfaces. “It’s a vehicle where a blind person can make active decisions and drive,” explains Hong in this fascinating talk from TED2011.

Sumit Dagar: Smartphones for the visually impaired
Most smartphones have glass surfaces — not exactly great if you rely on touch for information. So TED Fellow Sumit Dagar is working on a prototype of a smartphone based on a braille reader. This phone, still in development, will use different surfaces to denote function and will display information via braille. It also allows for braille texting, and will even pull up tactile maps. Perhaps the coolest, though—this phone will be able to scan any text and convert it into braille. And convert photos into feelable outlines.

Bob Lee: How I teach photography to the blind
Photography doesn’t seem like a likely hobby for people with impaired sight. At TEDxSingapore, photojournalist Bob Lee shares how he blindfolded himself to figure out techniques for teaching a five-week photography course for the blind. The key: using sound and tactile cues, plus the auto-functions on today’s smart cameras.

Sheila Nirenberg: A prosthetic eye to treat blindness
Neuroscientist Sheila Nirenberg is working on a technology not just to improve the everyday lives of those without sight — but to give them the ability to see, in the case that they should they want it. At TEDMED 2011, Nirenberg explains her creation — a prosthetic eye that captures images and sends them directly to the brain, by hooking into the optic nerve.

Anthony Dipin Vas: Haptic feedback shoes for the blind
In this incredible video — an ad rather than a TED Talk — a young man walks to school, a young woman strolls outdoors, and an old man navigates stairs. All three are blind. Rather than a cane or seeing eye dog, they are being guided by haptic feedback shoes. These shoes, called “La Chal” and created by TED Fellow Anthony Vipin Das, use GPS technology and vibrations to let their wearers know when to turn, lift their feet and stop to avoid a hazard. (Read a Q&A with Vipin Das on the TED Blog.)

Ewa Marcinek: Cinema for the blind
Ewa Marcinek has a fascinating vision — a movie theater where the blind, who rely on audio description to understand movies, and the sighted, who rely on visuals, can watch movies together without going mad. At TEDxWroclaw, Marcinek explains this unique challenge, and how her team has solved it.

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A prosthetic eye to treat blindness: Sheila Nirenberg on TED.com

At TEDMED, Sheila Nirenberg shows a bold way to create sight in people with certain kinds of blindness: by hooking into the optic nerve and sending signals from a camera direct to the brain. (Recorded at TEDMED 2011, October 2011, in San Diego, California. Duration: 16:00)

Watch Sheila Nirenberg‘s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.

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A curious hysterical blindness

The New York Times has an extended book review that explores female hysteria in 19th Century Paris while demonstrating a curious hysterical blindness of its own.

The piece reviews a new and supposedly excellent book by Asti Hustvedt called ‘Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris’.

Hysteria is the presentation of seemingly neurological symptoms without any damage to the nervous system that could explain it. Although we can’t explain why many neurological disorders appear, neurological symptoms – almost by definition – are linked to clear and detectable damage.

Those that appear without the presence of such damage were traditionally labelled ‘hysteria’ although are now subsumed under various diagnoses such as conversion disorder or somatoform disorder.

Charcot was a highly influential 19th Century neurologist who essentially defined the shape of modern neurology and he was fascinated by hysteria. This is the subject of Asti Hustvedt’s new book.

I’ve not read the book but the review, and many pieces like it, focus on neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot’s interest in female hysteria as a demonstration of how the female body and sexuality were uniquely pathologised in 19th century medicine.

This would be interesting were it not for the fact that solely focusing on ‘female hysteria’ misrepresents what happened.

Not least because after more than two thousand years of hysteria being portrayed as being a uniquely feminine disorder, Charcot identified and campaigned for the existence of male hysteria.

This is from medical historian Mark Micale:

During the 1880s, Charcot published the case histories of more than 60 male “hysterics” and treated countless others in his daily hospital practice. Between a third and a quarter of the overall number of hysterical patients he presented in his printed works were men or children. In these writings, Charcot formulated an elaborate set of medical ideas about the disease in males, including a theory of aetiology, a model of symptomatology, and a programme of therapeutics.

Throughout this period, Charcot campaigned energetically for his theory of masculine hysteria, and by the time of his death, in 1893, the idea was widely accepted within mainstream European medical communities. Many of Charcot’s medical contemporaries judged his work on the topic to be among the most scientifically significant parts of his oeuvre, and the School of the Salpetriere, as it was called, was associated internationally with the theme of male hysteria.

It’s true to say that the female ‘hysterical patients’ gained much more attention (due to a combination of public fascination, Charcot’s love of showmanship and the recent invention of photography) but it’s interesting to note that this pattern has continued into the modern day.

This is despite the fact that’s the famous neurologist’s own interests were far more balanced. A curious historical parallel.

Link to review in the NYT.
Link details of ‘Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris’.

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