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Synesthesia Helmet

 A helmet that, when worn, enduces synesthesia.
  (+4, -2)
(+4, -2) 		  [vote for,
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I have synesthesia to an extent, I can see people as colors. My wife is a soft red/pink color and her mother is a darker red/maroon color. Looking through the archives I see that [Susen] does this to. What I want is a mask or helmet that can enduce other features of synesthesia. This helmet fully covers the head and face. It would have audio diaphrams on the outside of the helmet connected to a video screen inside the mask so that sounds can be interperted as objects or colors. A program like Sonique could be incorporated so that similar sounds could have similar visuals. Or visa-versa, there could be video receptors on the outside of the mask that could be wired to a speaker on the inside of the helmet. Don't know of any programs that would interpert sights as sounds, anyone out there know of any? Anyone have other ideas as to how the other senses could be used or switched?

I don't know, I may be talking out of my head here, but I think it would be neat.

—barnzenen, Oct 26 2001

[Susen]'s annotation http://www.halfbake...dea/Visible_20sound
[barnzenen, Oct 26 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Sonique http://www.sonique.com
Program listed in desc. [barnzenen, Oct 26 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

1/2 Baked by [waugsqueke]'s judgment http://www.halfbake.../Synesthesia_20Drug
[barnzenen, Oct 26 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

All the fun of schizophrenia... in a hat. http://www.zeppotro...ons/schizo-hat.html
A bit of tinkering with a screwdriver, some gaffer tape here and there and I think we have a prototype Synesthesia Helmet. (sorry) [st3f, Oct 26 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Keep Aliens From Controlling Your Thoughts! http://www.stopabductions.com/
Stops aliens (and humans) with synesthesia from "seeing" what color you are. [zaphod12, Oct 26 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

The Reality Helmet: http://www.interact...jekt_helmet_eng.htm
"Creative confusion with cross-over senses" [phoenix, Jun 04 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       (It's my understanding that) LSD has this effect.   

       Oh, you mean something legal.
—phoenix, Oct 26 2001
   

       No no no no, when you hear your mother-in-law it conjures up images of swirling blue triangles or if you saw her, like in my case, you would see a dark red line around her. In some cases of synesthesia the olfactory nerves get jumbled up with sights, so some sights would make people smell grapefruits or crayons. How could you incorporate smells or tastes into this helmet?
—barnzenen, Oct 29 2001
   

       To reproduce something close to what you describe sounds fiendishly difficult, because the program would have to interpret the semantics of the situation (e.g. recognise your mother-in-law visually or aurally). If you just wanted to generate some colours and coloured objects according to the bare facts (uninterpreted) of the visual or aural field, that shouldn't be too hard, but something like true synaesthesia is probaby beyond today's technology. Then again, somebody might write a decent pattern-matching algorithm tomorrow that could do the job, I don't know.
—vincebowdren, Oct 29 2001
   

       No, not deleted. I did read it, but it included drugs. I don't promote drugs no matter how fun they are, so I wanted a drug free, legal answer to all those who want to experiance synesthesia. I'll provide a link to the drug one.
—barnzenen, Oct 29 2001
   

       OT: How does one go about discovering they have synesthesia? More to the point, perhaps we all have it and the only ones who notice are the ones wherein it doesn't work properly (like color vision).
—phoenix, Oct 29 2001
   

       Was reading an article in some sci-fi/fantasy mag when they started talking about karmas and how some people can see them. It went into detail on what they looked like and how they change from mood to mood. I noticed that I saw them but the colors never changed. Also, it is selective, I don't notice the color on all people, just some, most really. Maybe the people I don't see it are realy just a clear color, hmm, never thought of that. Never knew the name of it was synesthesia until just recently. Received a newsletter that has bizarre articles in it, one was on a guy in the UK I think who has this and I recognized and was familiar with some of his symptoms. Got looking into it and it is more in-depth then I ever thought. Do a search on google to find some very interesting things. One article I found from my original google search said that this one girl, like me, didn't know she was different until one day she was playing pool with some friends when she noticed the numbers on the balls didn't match the colors of the balls.
—barnzenen, Oct 29 2001
   

       (Still OT) How odd that a condition like that could go undiagnosed until adulthood. I would have thought it would be detected earlier ("Hey, Mommy, is Mr. Smith the one with the blue outline or the one with the red outline?") Is this condition as inoccuous as it sounds or does it cause those with it problems?
—phoenix, Oct 29 2001
   

       [phoenix], I was, and still am, a quiet person. I was never one to voice my opionion very loudly, that is until I could do it anon. online. I just thought everyone could see the colors. I've always been able to recognize the person with the color of the line around them be fore I could recognize their face. so I guess it helps me remember them, in some sort of way.   

       Also, [waugsqueke], it sounds like a little bit of it like in my case, but not true synesthesia. Keep in mind that I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV.
—barnzenen, Oct 31 2001
   

       I have always struggled to imagine why anyone would want to suffer from this condition. As I understand it, it seems to be crosstalk from nerves wired up to different senses. It might be pretty in a lavalamp kind of way but also maladaptive.   

       I suppose I'm going to get jumped on by all the non-mechanists out there who want to believe that synesthesia is revealing some deeper truth but - hey! That's just soemthing I'm going to have to learn to deal with.
—gravelpit, Nov 01 2001
   

       I didn't mean to leave the helmet on all day long, I just wanted to be able to experiance it for a little while. I don't think it is an insight to deeper truths, just another way to look at things, literally.
—barnzenen, Nov 01 2001
   

       waugs, I have the same tonal-synesthesia as you describe and discussed it many times with my friends in orchestras. It's difficult to think about it in the bland surroundings of an office, but I think A is dusky red and A-flat is much deeper and stronger. However, since every person will have different mental colours (or images) for notes, I would expect that it is impossible to write a piece of music that will generate the same palette in an entire audience.
Many commentators have discussed the apparent 'warmth' of different keys, e.g. a piece written in A flat is far more comfortable than one written in C sharp. There are two Chopin waltzes by which I could illustrate this, but you can't hear me hum and I can't remember the opus numbers. However, this is not tonal synesthesia, this is the reaction of harmonics against the natural tonal range of each person's hearing - it is considered that most people have a standard range and that abilities like perfect pitch are actually developed (unconsciously) by feeling the physical effect of a very specific frequency of sound (note Evelyn Glennie). This is also how interval pitching works, since any two or more notes will produce interference frequencies and associated harmonics; if the original notes are not in tune, the resulting harmonics of the interference will be irregular fractions of the original notes rather than regular ones. This is why even a 'minor 2nd' or 'diminshed 7th' interval does not sound wrong, because all the interferences you can create with any combination of notes on a correctly tuned instrument will be regular fractions. (I sense I'm making this too music-geeky). However, irregular fractions have long been used to great effect in church organs, where there are often a multitude of pipes available which add a discordant, edgy voice to the music. Ordinary pipes will be 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 feet long (etc) but these extras are often lengths such as 2' 13 3/4" or so.
—lewisgirl, Nov 01 2001
   

       It seems someone else has come up with [barnzenen]'s idea. (link)
—phoenix, Jun 04 2002
   

       Hot Damn! It's baked! I want one. How come my name wan't listed as inspiration or something?
—barnzenen, Jun 04 2002
   

       I sent him an e-mail with the link to this page. Haven't heard back from him yet.
—phoenix, Jun 05 2002
   
      
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