this is (non)sense
Mind Maps for Readings // Week 11
Human and Animal Senses
By Asle

Traditionally the human body is set to have five senses: Sight, hearing, taste, smell and ‘touch.
We are though capable of percepting a bit more than that and in the equally common understand of the human body we do also have a balance/acceleration (vestibular) sense and a sense of proprioception and . That’s seven senses in total.

If we broaden our understanding of senses the human is also capable of feeling sexual stimulation, pain, temperature, magnetoception etc.

Certain animals poses other senses that we don’t have. Some can echolocate, other can feel through changes in electric fields called electroreception and again others have hygroreceptors and are capable of detecting changes in the humidity. But mostly they have the same senses as we humans; just more specialised and improved.

It’s the key to their survival but also our all dominating success as a species; That we can adapt to all environments quickly. The one sense among humans that experts point out as being the more developed and superior to the rest is literally our “fingerspitzgefühl” that makes it possible for us to feel differences down to 1/10 of a mm. That has made us able of creating more and more advanced tools but it’s also the requisite for using. e.g. braille. In comparison with e.g. the mole that has receptors that can register irregularities down to 1/1000 of a mm. we humans are still pretty bad at feeling though.

Refining all senses is though not necessarily the answer to the creating a perfect being. Though cognitive differences, a rat is brainewise not far from being one big nose and an owl two big sets of glasses. It simply takes up too much ‘brainpower’ to run all these data and therefore an animal can be superior within a most specific environment but useless if something sudden was to happen that changes the conditions of living.

Nevertheless has most of us probably thought of the befinits one could have from a better eyesight or hearing. And through technology these are fields that we effect an influence all the time with approximately 60% of the grown population wearing glasses - and 80% if you only the ones over the age of 40 are counted.

But technology is not the only way. You can actually train yourself to be better at hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling. And probably also other senses too. In fact what restraints our perception is to some extent not our receptors but our ‘brain process’ of the inputs.

Values
Senses can naturally be improved
One tends to use external things (glasses, hearing device) for making their senses better rather than practising what the have

Questions/wonders
How would the human be (look) like if it had improved just one of their senses?

Links:
https://illvid.dk/dyr/dyrenes-ekstreme-sanser-overtager-hjernen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense
https://sosunord.dk/futurelab/snoezel/sanserum/om-de-7-sanser/
https://videnskab.dk/krop-sundhed/kan-man-traene-sig-til-super-sanser
https://natgeo.dk/videnskab/mennesker/hvilken-menneskesans-er-bedst
https://illvid.dk/dyr/saadan-sanser-dyrene
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/animals/life/sense.htm


Other areas of interest not treated in the text above:
- (Animals have improved a specific sense and downgraded the remaining senses that they are not dependable upon.)

- What animals have which evolved senses?

- The same cognitive senses can be percepted differently (e.g. snakes smell with their tongue)

- Science fiction and senses for perception (e.g. the pale man from Pan’s Labyrinth, Themis)





Neza
A lot of bionic eyes are in development right now, we might soon receive the high-tech one but at the moment there is one offered for a specific disease.

In 1755 French physician and scientist Charles Leroy first time used an electrical device (two wires and a jar) to successfully restore flicker of visual perception.
Prosthetic eyes are meant to replace physicial structure of an eye. Bionic implants work inside the existing eye structure or in the brain.

Since there is not one reason for blindness, also can not be just one type of cure. It is really important why the sight was lost.
There can be that cornea or lens are damaged or diseased, in other case can also be that the signal is lost on the way to the brain. So for example right now one type of bionic eyes is available and those are retinal implants. The only acceptable device is called Argus II and it helps with visual perception people who have retinitis pigmentosa or elderly people.
Argus II doesn’t restore sight fully since it mostly enables people to discern light, movement and shapes. Reason for that is 60 electrodes, to see naturally, you need about million.

Way to improve the sight with bionic eyes is either by increasing the number of implanted micro-electrodes and make them smaller, newer nanotechnology materials could enable the electrodes to be small enough.
Other way is to refine the electrical stimulation patterns to better focus stimulation to activate smaller-sized clusters for neurons.
Research are also striving to mimic the neural code that retina uses to communicate with brain. If the firing patterns of photoreceptors could be replicated, the correct message could be trassmited to the brain.

How does it actually work?
Bionic eyes convert image from a video camera to high-contrast representation. That is converted further with external processor into electrical stimulation parameters, which are sent to electrodes implanted in the eye. Bionic eye perceives a blurred image.

VALUES, ASSUMPTIONS
Designed to achieve functional vision goals
Made for people who do not have sight, enabling them to see what everyone else also sees
A tool to make all people feel equal and offer them the same conditions to live
Technology which is not focused on aesthetics of design but purely on the functionality of it
Different reasons for blindness and that is what makes it hard to develop one pair which would suit everyone, multiple bionic eyes have to be developed
Still limitations in sight, doesn’t fully restore sight
It is expensive, so it is not within reach for everyone
Retinal implants are used for people who have lost their sight with a specific disease, retinis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration
Nano-technology could solve the whole problem of micro-electrodes which need to be implanted into or near the eye and consequently grately improve the sight which bionic eyes offer
Bionic eyes in the future could be 3D printed and improve sight of everyone
Possibly people would replace their eyes with bionic eyes








Melissa, Hearing Aids


Ø Hearing aids are considered ugly. As long as the hearing aids exist, people want to be able to hide them as much as possible.

Ø In the 19th century designers tried everything to hide the hearing aids in a unique way. They are designed as decorative accessories and integrated into chains, hats, clothes and walking sticks. Some devices are even hidden in large beards.

Ø It is ironic that the designers of the beginning of the 19th century want to hide the hearing aids as much as possible, while at the end of the 19th century they go back to the design of the 17th century. The acoustic horn is big and hard to hide.

Ø The introduction of electricity is leading to a true technological revolution. In 1902, the telephone was combined with a microphone and the first electric hearing aid was created.

Ø At the end of the 1950s, the first hearing aid that could be worn completely invisibly was introduced. The wires of this hearing aid were hidden in the legs of glasses. The glasses were even worn by people with perfect vision. So it became a fashion trend.

Ø In the 1960s, hearing aids were replaced by smaller hearing aids in the form we know today. The 'behind-the-ear' hearing aid" with an integrated amplifier and battery attached behind the ear weighs only seven grams.


Ø In 1978, Graeme Clarck invented the cochlear implant; an electronic implant that converts sound into electrical pulses that directly stimulate the auditory nerve in the cochlea (or cochlea). As a result of this development, people with no or limited hearing are able to perceive sounds, sounds and speech to a limited extent.

Values
Considered ugly: Because of the design or the handicap?
Aesthetic reasons for wearing (hearing)glasses made it desirable - visual appearance more important than actual functions (trying to fit in, being normal…)
We are exposed to more noize in today’s society and damage our hearing more often





What if there was a device to increase the hearing from people who do have a normal hearing but want to hear the smallest sounds?
What if we train our other senses but taking one out?
What if we can create sounds with vibrations without damaging our ears?
What if you could hear what your thinking ?




Sources:
https://www.schoonenberg.nl/blog/een-stukje-geschiedenis-over-hoortoestellen/

https://www.vanboxtelhoorwinkels.nl/over-ons/ons-verhaal/historie