It's not clear that this tool proves or even suggests anything at all about the relationship of mind and body. At best it indicates something about how our "sensorium" operates, but many philosophers would be seriously hesitant to equate our sensory awareness of our spatial surroundings with the mind. After all, animals have such a sensorium, but it's debatable whether they have mind in the sense(s) that philosophers, mystics, zen masters, or poets mean it.
This is a cool project, it'd be fun to make, and I'd bet enlightening to walk around with your eyes closed for a while.<p>There are a few things I'm sure I'd have done differently, and I'm not criticizing, I'm saying mine might have come out worse the first time. But I'm curious if anyone who's tried it can speak to the choices.<p>The case seems huge, the components could definitely fit into a tube half the diameter. Maybe it'd just take more time to pack, but maybe a large tube is actually beneficial for feeling the vibrations?<p>I'm sure I'd have tried audio over vibration, seems like you can get a much better range with less battery power. But vibration is perhaps less annoying to use for longer periods of time, or just more tactile?<p>And the PING sensor in my experience is extremely, surprisingly narrow. It feels like real life ray tracing. I've been curious about, but too busy to buy & play with, the infrared proximity sensors - I'm wondering if they have a somewhat wider spread but could still work here? Anyone know?
This would be even more interesting if you had a hat with a ring of 4 of these sensors and vibrators. This way you could even "see" whats behind and next to you.
Video demonstration is available for download here: <a href="http://sensitiveresearch.com/Ping%20stick/images/wall,%20edge%20emphasis.mov" rel="nofollow">http://sensitiveresearch.com/Ping%20stick/images/wall,%20edg...</a>
I accidentally clicked on the up arrow for this article. Then I decided to check the article to see if it was worth an up vote anyway.<p>>This page uses a plugin that is not supported<p>I guess my Chrome doesn't do .mov files in embed tags.<p>Well anyway, as far as embodied cognition goes, I believe that, in a certain sense, a star is part of my body while I'm looking at it. Post-it notes are part of our memory.<p>Seems interesting. Reminds me of the glasses that flip your vision upside down until your brain flips it back right side up and then when you take the glasses off you see upside down with no glasses. And also of blind people echolocating.