The man with high-tech synesthesia

Neil Harbisson hears colors.

Neil Harbisson hears colors, said Sally Davies in the Financial Times. The Northern Irish artist was born with extreme color blindness and grew up seeing the world in grayscale. “Kids at school teased me,” says the 30-year-old. “People found it funny when I wore mismatched socks.” In college in southern England, he befriended a cybernetics expert who agreed to build Harbisson a device that would allow him to perceive color. The result was the “eyeborg”—a high-tech headset fitted with a tiny camera that hangs over Harbisson’s forehead like a third eye. The gadget translates color frequencies into sound, which is then pulsed directly into his skull via a headband. The first thing he looked at with it was a red bulletin board. “It made the note F, the lowest on the spectrum. Red was my favorite color for years.” Harbisson wears the headset everywhere, and delights in sights that others take for granted. “The [supermarket] cleaning product aisle is very exciting. The rows of rainbow-colored bottles sound like a symphony.” The eyeborg has even changed how Harbisson approaches home decoration. “My bedroom is black and white, which are silent and allow me to sleep. The back of my front door is green, which is a middle-sounding note—like a tuning fork that resets me before I go out.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us