Neil Harbisson, Eye-Borg wearer and student at Dartington College of Art: “I was in a lecture given by Adam Montandon in Dartington college and he was talking about cybernetics and cyborgs and how new technology can change the way we perceive the world and, when he finished and asked him if he thought it would be possible to create something so that I could perceive colour in some way and he said ‘Sure’, and we began a project.”

Guide Voice: What Adam created was the “Eye-Borg” – a means of transferring colours into a series of audible tones.

Adam Montandon, Director of Digital Futures, HMC Interactive and Guest Lecturer in Digital Arts, Dartington College of Art – “How the Eye-Borg system works is it uses a small, digital head mounted camera that takes in all the colout information directly in front of it and feeds it into a computer that you can wear in a backpack, it can be any normal laptop computer, and the laptop runs on special software that slows down the light waves and turns them into soundwaves. Those soundwaves then come out of the headphones here.”

Med. wide NH painting – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard
Over shoulder shot of painting – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard

Profile of NH painting – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard
c.u. paints held in hand – audio tones from Eye-Borg can be heard

Guide Voice: The Eye-Borg analyses the light waves it received and transposes these into sound waves. So red, which is a low colour frequency, is heard as a low tone; violet, at the other end of the spectrum, would sound as a high tone. This gives Neil his new found perception of colour and Adam is confident that he can adapt his invention to help others.

Adam Montandon – “The wider applications of the Eye-Borg are almost limitless. It’s not just for people with visual impairments; it could even be used for people with complete blindness. And also a lot of musicians, a lot of artists, a lot of engineers are really interested in a project that combines visual and audio experience as one new perception. Everybody uses their eyes or their ears in their day to day job, and this can really help to bring a closer connection between the two.”

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