title: 'Visual' acuity of the congenitally blind using visual-to-auditory sensory substitution.
abstract: Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs) convey visual information through sounds or touch, thus theoretically enabling a form of visual rehabilitation in the blind. However, for clinical use, these devices must provide fine-detailed visual information which was not yet shown for this or other means of visual restoration. To test the possible functional acuity conveyed by such devices, we used the Snellen acuity test conveyed through a high-resolution visual-to-auditory SSD (The vOICe). We show that congenitally fully blind adults can exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) blindness acuity threshold using SSDs, reaching the highest acuity reported yet with any visual rehabilitation approach. This demonstrates the potential capacity of SSDs as inexpensive, non-invasive visual rehabilitation aids, alone or when supplementing visual prostheses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Neurobiology, Faculty of Medicine, The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Ella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Striem-Amit
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guendelman
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amedi
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000151:congenital* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012682:Sensory Aids; D014792:Visual Acuity; D055815:Young Adult