Eidos mask enables 'superhuman' senses

It's not quite Iron Man, but two new high-tech masks developed by a group of students in the United Kingdom can greatly enhance the wearer's senses of sight and hearing.

 

Students from the Royal College of Art in London developed the "Eidos" equipment that can tune in to specific sounds or images, Dezeen.com reported.

 

"We've found that while we experience the world as many overlapping signals, we can use technology to first isolate and then amplify the one we want," it quoted the designers as saying.

 

The Eidos team includes students Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara.

 

Dezeen.com said potential uses for the mask may include sports and performing arts, where team members can visualise and improve technique in real time.

 

Also, the designers suggested the mask could be used to improve focus in the classroom especially among children with ADHD, where distracting background noises are neutralized.

 

Elderly people could also benefit from the device which can boost their deteriorating natural hearing ability.

 

The mask can fit over the mouth and ears to let the wearer hear speech more selectively.

 

A directional microphone captures the audio, and software processes it to get rid of background noise.

 

Isolated sound is then passed directly to the inner ear via bone vibrations.

 

"This creates the unique sensation of hearing someone talk right inside your head," the designers said.

 

Meanwhile, a second mask fits over the eyes and applies special effects to what the wearer is seeing in real-time.

 

"A head-mounted camera captures the imagery and sends it to a computer, where it's processed by custom software to detect and overlay movement," Dezeen.com said.

 

"We are used to controlling the world around us to find the settings that suit us best. But while technology advances to aid this, our physical bodies remain the same. What if we had the same control over our senses? If we could adjust them in real time, what experiences would this make possible," a separate report on Mashable quoted the students as saying. — TJD, GMA News