Sensory Substitution
There is an old wives' tale that as one sense becomes
less effective, one or more of the other senses becomes keener.
So, as your eyes get worse, your hearing improves. Unfortunately
this does not actually happen. However the underlying principle
that if one sense fails we could utilise one of the other senses
to compensate is the basis of a technique called Sensory Substitution.
There are many visual tasks that become more difficult
as the vision deteriorates. Everyday tasks such as reading, telling
the time and pouring drinks rely heavily on a visual input to effect
control. Remove the visual input and the task becomes virtually
impossible. Common sense may enable the sufferer to overcome some
difficulties, e.g. using light coloured chopping boards for dark
food and dark colours for light coloured food. However no amount
of common sense can tell you when boiling water has reached the
top of the cup when making a cup of tea. Sensory Substitution takes
a task and considers if that task could be performed by inputs from
one or more of the remaining senses, rather than input from normal
vision.
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