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IcanC | A new hope for the blind
"We see with our brains, not with our eyes."
Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita
What is IcanC ?
Blind people's eyes never stop moving. Even without sight, they search, fix, follow, because the brain keeps sending commands to the eye muscles. IcanC starts from this neurological reality to build something entirely new.
Two cameras and an eye-tracker, mounted on a lightweight frame, capture the environment and the direction of the user's gaze in real time. A processor reconstructs the image that the eyes would be trying to see, and delivers it to the skin through a wearable array of haptic actuators. The skin becomes a neo-retina: it receives the visual information the brain is expecting, exactly where the gaze is pointing.
This coupling between the gaze and the image delivered to the skin is what sets IcanC apart from every existing device. According to current neurological knowledge, it is the key condition that previous sensory substitution systems have failed to meet and the most promising pathway toward a genuine visual prosthesis.
This principle is patented in France, the UK, Germany, the USA and Israel.
Who are we?
Pierre Briand has been a physiotherapist and osteopath in the Paris region for over thirty years. His profession taught him that touch can perceive what the eyes cannot see: the internal structures of the body, their tensions, their spatial organisation. This clinical intuition, combined with a longstanding passion for neuroscience and neuroplasticity, gave birth to IcanC.
He is now partnering with SOVEREP for the development of the first prototype.
SAS IcanC was incorporated in 2020. French patent N° 1873115 was granted on 20 November 2020.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
In 1969, Professor Paul Bach-y-Rita published a landmark paper in Nature: blind people could perceive their environment through touch. His machine, the TVSS (Tactile Vision Sensory Substitution System), converted camera images into vibrations on the skin of the back. The world saw it as the dawn of a revolution for the blind. Bach-y-Rita gave us a concept that would change medicine: neuroplasticity.
Fifty years later, the commercial successor of that device: the BrainPort Vision Pro, has been sold to only a few hundred users worldwide. Despite solid scientific validation, users give up: the image does not integrate naturally, it is guessed rather than perceived. Researchers identified the reason: the camera is fixed and frontal. It does not follow the gaze. Without coherence between what the eye seeks and what the skin receives, the brain cannot build a spatial map: the fundamental neurological condition for visual perception is not met.
This is the logical flaw that Pierre Briand identified, and that IcanC corrects. Bach-y-Rita was right: we see with our brain. IcanC provides the missing condition to make it real.
Get involved
IcanC is at a pivotal moment in its development. The first prototype is being built. The scientific foundations are solid and the international patent is in place.
We are looking for partners, funders, experts and people with lived experience, neuroscientists, ophthalmologists, associations of blind and visually impaired people, impact investors to take the next steps together.
If you would like to learn more, contribute, share your expertise, or simply reach out, we would love to hear from you. Every connection matters.