The VISTACTO Project aims to prove that touch can create a direct channel to the part of the brain responsible for vision, so that lines can be "seen". These lines will be drawn on a hand with a tactile stimulator using novel, energy-efficient, and safe technology.
There have been other projects that stimulate the hand and generate a map of one’s surroundings. This map is interpreted by the user from the drawing made on their hand. However, the truly ground-breaking idea is to prove that these drawings can actually be visually perceived. The resource used is cerebral plasticity: children's neurons are capable of creating these new links between the channels of touch and vision. With their help, it is much more feasible to demonstrate that we can create a real channel between touch and vision, which would pave the way for attempting this in people of other ages in the future.
The tactile stimulator will be a small box with a dot matrix. Each dot will contain tiny magnets that are raised and lowered. The same stimulator will also employ novel and efficient technology.
A multidisciplinary team is involved in the project: electronics and computer science engineers, neuroscientists, and others from the Carlos III University of Madrid, the Complutense and Oviedo Universities, and the Spanish Center for Subtitling and Audio Description (Centro Español de Subtitulado y Audiodescripción). So far, this team has developed similar systems that have enabled blind people to map their environment through touch and distinguish signals, gestures, etc. We aim to make a qualitative leap: we want tactile information to stop being perceived as such and become a real visual stimulus for the brain.
