An innovative study found that blind people have the capability to perceive the shape and presence of a human body through "soundscapes" that translate images into sound.

Normal people are able to see things because their brain's visual cortex lights up with activity every time their eyes fall on something. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen for blind people. However, in a new study conducted by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, researchers found that this mechanism can also take place in blind people with a little bit of training.

After completing the training, soundscapes representing the outlines and silhouettes of bodies caused the brain's visual cortex to light up, even in blind people. The 70 hours of training rendered the blind participants capable of recognizing the presence of a human form. What's more, they were also able to detect the exact posture of the person in the image and imitate it.

"The idea is to replace information from a missing sense by using input from a different sense," said Amir Amedi of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in a press statement. "It's just like bats and dolphins use sounds and echolocation to 'see' using their ears.Imagine for instance a diagonal line going down from left to right; if we use a descending musical scale -- going on the piano from right to left -- it will describe it nicely. And if the diagonal line is going up from left to right, then we use an ascending musical scale."

During the study, participants were first taught how to perceive dots. Later they learned how to join the dots over curves and junctions. Finally, they were given more complex images like that of a human body to perceive.

"We're beginning to understand [that] the brain is more than a pure sensory machine," Amedi said. "It is a highly flexible task machine. The time has come to revive the focus on practical visual rehabilitation with sensory substitution devices."

For the study, researchers used an algorithm they call vOICe, which translates images in black and white. As the study progressed, they moved on to a newer algorithm called EyeMusic, which incorporates color information through the use of different musical instruments. The new algorithm app is freely available on iTunes.

Findings of the study were published online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology