An apparatus for providing an audible representation of any data which can be represented in a format of M x N individual datum. Each datum can have individually specified properties. One application of this technique is to provide an audible representation of a visual scene. Since these data can readily be assimilated by the brain, they can provide either an aid to the visually handicapped or supplementary information to the normally sighted. A matrix of M x N pixels is generated in which distance along one spatial axis is represented by discrete sound frequencies and distance along the orthogonal axis is represented by the time lapse following a reference sound pulse. The light intensity of a pixel is represented by the amplitude of the sound at both a particular frequency and a particular time after the reference sound pulse is generated.
SOUND PATTERN GENERATOR