Cyborg Hears Colors – Wants to Receive Them From Space

Cyborg activist Neil Harbisson is back in the news this week after giving a presentation at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, about the latest updates to his permanently-attached antenna that allows this color-blind human to hear colors. Cyborg activist? Hear colors? Wait, what?

Neil Harbisson was born in 1982 with an extreme form of color blindness called achromatopsia that limits his vision to black, white and grayscale – a severe restriction for someone who wants to become an artist. In 2003, Harbisson and cybernetics student Adam Montandon designed a sensor that converted color frequencies into sound frequencies. An engineer expanded the range to 360 color microtones and adjusted the volume levels to help Harbisson discern color saturation levels.

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