Navigation with a sensory substitution device in congenitally blind individuals

@article{Chebat2011NavigationWA,
  title={Navigation with a sensory substitution device in congenitally blind individuals},
  author={Daniel-Robert Chebat and Fabien C. Schneider and Ron Kupers and Maurice Ptito},
  journal={NeuroReport},
  year={2011},
  volume={22},
  pages={342–347}
}
Vision allows for obstacle detection and avoidance. The compensatory mechanisms involved in maintaining these functions in blind people using their remaining intact senses are poorly understood. We investigated the ability of congenitally blind participants to detect and avoid obstacles using the tongue display unit, a sensory substitution device that uses the tongue as a portal to the brain. We found that congenitally blind were better than sighted control participants in detecting and… 
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101 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
4
Background Citations
33
Methods Citations
10
Results Citations
3

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    101 Citations

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    Purpose In this study, we investigate to what degree augmented reality technology can be used to create and evaluate a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device to improve the performance of…
    Efficiency of Sensory Substitution Devices Alone and in Combination With Self-Motion for Spatial Navigation in Sighted and Visually Impaired
    TLDR
    These findings highlight how exploiting non-visual multisensory integration to develop new assistive technologies could be key to help blind and VI persons, especially due to their difficulty in attaining allocentric information.
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    The effect of extended sensory range via the EyeCane sensory substitution device on the characteristics of visionless virtual navigation.
    TLDR
    The virtual-EyeCane is developed, a minimalistic sensory substitution device translating single-point-distance into auditory cues identical to the EyeCane's in the real world, which suggests that additional distance information indeed changes navigation patterns from virtual-White-Cane use, and brings them closer to visual navigation.
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