Eyeborg facts for kids

An eyeborg is a special electronic eye that helps people hear colors! It's mostly used by people who are blind or have color blindness. This amazing device works by using a small camera worn on the head. The camera "sees" colors in front of a person and turns them into different musical notes. Imagine hearing a song every time you look at something colorful!

What is an Eyeborg?

An eyeborg is a unique electronic device designed to let people experience colors through sound. It's like having an extra sense! Instead of seeing colors with their eyes, users hear them with their ears. This technology helps people who cannot see colors in the usual way, giving them a new way to understand the world around them.

How Does an Eyeborg Work?

The eyeborg uses a small camera, often worn on a headband or attached to glasses. This camera captures the colors directly in front of the person. A computer inside the eyeborg then takes these colors and changes them into specific musical notes. For example, red might sound like one note, and blue might sound like another. The brighter the color, the louder the note might be! This way, users can learn to understand what colors are around them just by listening.

Who Invented the Eyeborg?

The very first eyeborg was created in England in 2003. It was made by Adam Montandon, who worked with an artist named Neil Harbisson. Neil Harbisson is colorblind, so he was very interested in a device that could help him "hear" colors. Their invention was quite successful! It won a British award for innovation called "Submerge 2004" and a European award for design called "Europrix 2004."

How Has the Eyeborg Improved?

Since its first invention, the eyeborg has continued to get better. In 2007, a software developer from Slovenia named Peter Kese made some big improvements. He increased the number of colors the eyeborg could recognize to 360! He also added different volume levels, so users could hear how strong or intense a color was.

Today, students are still working on making the eyeborg even smaller and more advanced. Matias Lizana, a student from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, is developing the eyeborg into a tiny computer chip. This new chip will allow people to hear colors in stereo (like listening to music with two headphones) and could even be placed inside the body.

Images for kids

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  The Harbisson's Sonochromatic Music Scale

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  Blind Ecuadorians using eyeborgs

See also

In Spanish: Eyeborg para niños