CBC radio's Quirks and Quarks science show has a fascinating piece on a woman who uses a technology called vOICe to replace the vision she lost when her eyes were damaged in an industrial accident. vOICe uses stereo cameras in a pair of cycling goggles to convert visual data into audio signals played through headphones, producing a lo-res version of her visual surroundings. One of the more fascinating elements of the program is the stuff on brain-function, and the new theories being engendered by this about the way that what we think of as the "visual cortex" is actually a general-purpose tool for processing sensory data about one's surroundings regardless of whether or not it arrives visuallly.
(Thanks, Darren!)
