Millions of people will experience the solar eclipse this evening, August 12... even if they are blind. The Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Spain have developed a device that will translate the sights of the eclipse into sounds, allowing people with visual impairments to "hear" the eclipse.
Spanish public broadcaster RTVE will broadcast the audio in the TV's audio description channel during the main 20 minutes of the eclipse, when the sun will be completely covered by the moon.
The sun at its peak will sound like a flute, with high pitched sounds, but as the moon covers it, the sound will become increasingly lower and similar to a clarinet, followed by clicking sounds when it is nearly covered (like cicadas at dusk) and during the time it is completely covered, around a minute and a half, nothing will sound.
This idea builds on a project that was made in the United States in 2017, and uses a sensor to capture the amount of light and associate it with sound. 120 devices have been built and distributed to organisations.
"People with visual impairments received it very well because it allowed them to be at the center of the experience. No one told them what was happening, or it was something they only found out about later. Thanks to these devices, they themselves could be at the heart of the event", said Jorge Rivero González, head of communication and outreach at the ICE.
