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What is IcanC ?
Eye movements do not stop in a person who is blind, and despite the blindness, they try to follow or fix what their brain is looking for. The original idea of IcanC® was to measure these movements and to reconstruct the image that the eyes would see if they could do it. It then remains only to restore this image on the area of skin chosen as a replacement retina. Thus, two functions necessary to each other will work together again: the replacement of sight by touch (sensory function) and the gaze (motor function). This device will be double, one per eye, just like in natural sight. We will integrate recent technological advances into the project (augmented or mixed reality, haptic processes, micro-actuators etc.) The goal is to provide the brain with the data it needs, no more no less. Spontaneously, neuroplasticity will gradually build a true vision prosthesis.
Who are we?
Pierre Briand has been working on the IcanC project for over twenty years. Thanks to his profession, osteopathy, he understood that one can visualize by touch the invisible internal structures of the body. Gradually, the idea came to use this tactile visualization capacity, in favour of the blind. He is joined today by a team of young tech professionals who want to carry this project with him to change the lives of millions of people.
Sensory Substitution Story:
From 1963, Professor Bach-y-Rita (1934–2006) and his team (University of Wisconsin at Madison) developed different forms of TVSS (“Tactile Vision Sensory Substitution”). The principle is to convert a video image captured in front of the subject, into a tactile image (vibratory or electric) reproduced in real-time on their skin. This, therefore, becomes a replacement retina; then the brain process that data. In this previous version, the TVSS uses a front video sensor, and reproduces an image of 400 pixels, by electro-stimulation of low intensity on the tongue. What is interesting is that this rather small restitution is nevertheless exploitable by blind people. To the point that this device is marketed (BrainPort V100) by the American company WICAB technologies. However, the enormous success hoped for is not there, because users tire quickly: more often than not, the image does not integrate spontaneously, it is not tested but guessed. IcanC is here to fix this disconnect and bring a new hope for the blind.
"We see with our brains, not with our eyes."
Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita
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