A chap called Udo Wächter from the University of Osnabrück in Germany decided to place a belt on himself everyday with 13 vibrating pads inside.
Strange! I hear you say, and no it’s not for toning muscles.
It was a similar sensation to a mobile phone vibrating.
In addition to these pads was a
sensor, which detected the Earth’s magnetic field, so whichever buzzer was
pointing North would go off everyday all day long.
Wächter is an avid bike rider and
was starting to gain some new awareness...
"I finally understood just how much roads actually wind," he says.
Deep into the experiment, Wächter
says,
"I suddenly realised that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn't get lost, even in a completely new place."
Direction isn't something humans can
detect innately. Some birds can, of course, and for them their internal GPS is
no less important than taste or smell is for us. In fact, lots of animals have
cool, "extra" senses...
Silver tip Grizzly Bears can smell you from 18 miles away, Jumping Spiders can see four primary colours, Pit Vipers can see in infra-red, Loggerhead Turtles feel Earth's magnetic field, Bats hear frequencies outside our auditory range, and some Insects see ultraviolet light.
We humans get just the five. But why?
Can our senses be modified?
Expanded?
The answer to this question, according
to researchers at a handful of labs around the world, appears to be yes!
It turns out that the tricky bit
isn't the sensing. The hard part is processing the input. Neuroscientists don't
know enough about how the brain interprets data.
The Answer!
Figure out how to change the sensory
data you want — the electromagnetic fields, the ultrasound, the infrared — into
something that the human brain is already wired to accept, like touch or sight.
The brain, it turns out, is dramatically more flexible than anyone previously thought, as if we had unused sensory ports just waiting for the right plug-ins... Now it's time to build them!
The brain, it turns out, is dramatically more flexible than anyone previously thought, as if we had unused sensory ports just waiting for the right plug-ins... Now it's time to build them!
If you find this interesting read
more from my source WIRED
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