Title :
An Electrical Stimulator for Sensory Substitution
Author :
Pereira, Mauro C. ; Kassab, Fuad, Jr.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mechatronics Eng., Univ. Catolica Dom Bosco, Campo Grande
fDate :
Aug. 30 2006-Sept. 3 2006
Abstract :
This work presents an electrical stimulator system for use in sensory substitution (SS), as a mobility aid for visually handicapped people. The whole system passes visual information via cutaneous stimulation, and consists of a webcam, a PC, dedicated hardware to generate stimuli and a 15times20 electrode matrix. The same system can also be used in psycophysical and somesthesic research, or even for SS of deaf people, by changing the input signal from a camera to a microphone, and adapting its control software. Circuits for pixel addressing, for signal generation and for switching are described, as well as the software involved in generating a pulse train, which configures the stimuli patterns
Keywords :
handicapped aids; sensory aids; PC; cutaneous stimulation; deaf people; electrical stimulator; microphone; mobility aid; psycophysical research; sensory substitution; signal generation; somesthesic research; visual information; visually handicapped people; webcam; Cameras; Circuits; Control systems; Deafness; Electrodes; Hardware; Matrices; Microphones; Pulse generation; Signal generators;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2006. EMBS '06. 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
New York, NY
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0032-5
Electronic_ISBN :
1557-170X
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.2006.260380
