REALLY SEEING IT
Sound and Vision Online has a fascinating article (forwarded to me by my friend Joe), on a couple of 
new patents filed by Sony (Thanks, Joe).
The problem these patents potentially solve is the same bottleneck that PCs have had in recent years whereby the capabilities of the CPUs in PCs to process large amounts of data have far surpassed the PC Bus systems that transport the data back and forth to memory.
The article describes a similar biological bottleneck between our eyes and the brain:
"As wonderful as eyes and ears are, they're also bottlenecks. The retina collects the equivalent of about 800 million bits per second (Mbps), but the optic nerve transmits only about 8 Mbps.
A neural A/V system might be able to deliver the full whammy to the brain. And it might even provide entirely new ways to experience music and movies. With appropriate brain massaging, you could smell the sounds of U2 or taste the images of The Lord of the Rings."
Apparently Sony might have a solution. According to the article:
"Consider two recent Sony patents (#6,536,440 and #6,729,337) titled "Method and System for Generating Sensory Data onto the Human Neural Cortex" and a patent application (#20040267118) titled "Scanning Method for Applying Ultrasonic Acoustic Data to the Human Neural Cortex."
They describe a noninvasive way to create sensory perceptions across the neural cortex. For example, "imagery captured from a video camera is converted into neural timing difference data" and scanned across the brain as "pulsed ultrasonic signals that modify the firing rate of the neural tissue."
In this manner, "sensory experiences arise from the differences in neural firing times." (If you think I'm kidding, check out the patent numbers at www.uspto.gov or freepatentsonline.com.)"
Actual productization of this is probably years away.
But can't you just imagine some Sony executive saying:
"Video iPod? We don't need no stinking Video iPod!*"
And don't you love how yesterday's science fiction becomes soon-to-come today's technology?
* Picture is from Wikipedia depicting actor Alfonso Bedoya from the classic 1948 Bogart movie "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" that inspired the original "Stining Badges" quote.
Scary, actually -- what if someone starts beaming spam and ads right into our brains?
:-O
Posted by: A.R.Yngve | Saturday, June 17, 2006 at 06:09 PM