If you all are lucky enough to hold daily conversations with me, every once in a whilea perverse (read: deviation from right) or very “out there†(read:from stupid to crazy to brilliant) idea/thought comes into my mind and I am notaffraid to talk about it... here's where they will go...
First up? [DISCLAIMER: I'm not a Optomitrist, Biologist, or claim to know what I'mtalking about and second, I know I'm not the first to think of this.]
So there I was reading “TheBlind Watchmaker†by Richard Dawkins (who btw is one of my new heroes); he wastalking about the complexity of the eye. While not getting into the conversations onevolution vs creationism (which will show up here eventually), I started thinking aboutthe diagram of the eye that was shown to me.
Seen here, is the basic structure of the eye. The part that I was interested in, isthe back of the eye where the cones (light receptors) take in the light that is filteredthrough the lens and transmits signals through the optic nerve to the brain through therods that connect them. Like this.
My idea, being a computer scientist is... so if you have one point A (cones + rods)sending signals to point B (optic nerve)... then there could be a point ofinterception.
< stop >This story is going to take a turn to show you that I don't know whatI'm talking about in Biology. The assumption is, is that a signal is deterministic fromthe rods to the optic nerve (read: the signal travels down through the optic nerve to thebrain in a static fashion and doesn't mutate at all.)< / stop >
So... where's the odd idea? Why not intercept and cutoff those lines between the conesand rods and inject our own signals. Perhaps one could capture signals by just listeningto those lines... record them... and play them back in those same lines once they are cutoff. Imagine, being able to record a few images and have them play back in exactly thesame clarity and likeliness to the original perception. Imagine if someone evil got aholdof this type of idea? Imagine taking this technique and applying it to someone who is“blind.â€
It has been recorded that the parts of the brain used for imagry (what you percieve asbeing the image in front of you) are still active and functional in blind people.Sometimes the missing link is where that information get's to your conscious (notconscience)... so in reality, your eye functions, the signal gets processed correctly,but once the information is there... you don't get the signal that puts it into your“visionâ€.... This technique wouldn't help with that... but in the other casewhere the eye isn't functioning properly internally... then something like this couldhelp...
Camera (records signals into what the brain can use) .. injects them into the opticnerve.. which sends it to the brain to get processed.
:: shrugs ::