Tony Heyes a retired scientist and inventor with PhDs in both Physics and Psychology. An Englishman born in Eccles, Manchester, attended University of Salford, University of Cambridge now iiving mostly in Melbourne, Australia but like an Arctic Tern, makes frequent visits to the Northern Hemisphere.
Born in the UK in 1940 Tony was awarded a BSc in Physics with First Class Honours from the University of Salford. Research on the propagation of cracks through brittle solids at the Cavendish Laboratory led to a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge . While at Cambridge Tony was attached to Corpus Christi College. After a period in industry with the ALCAN, Aluminium Company of Canada; Tony returned to University joining the Psychology Department at the University of Nottingham as a Research Fellow in the Blind Mobility Research Unit. (Tony had suffered bi-lateral detached retinae while at Cambridge. After seven unsuccessful operations in Cambridge an eighth was performed at Moorfields Eye Hospital by the renowned Lorimer Fison and the sight of one eye was restored).
During the seventeen years spent at Nottingham, Tony achieved a detailed understanding of the informational needs of the blind pedestrian. He was able to embody much of this understanding in a series of novel electronic mobility guidance devices culminating in the invention of the Sonic Pathfinder - the first guidance device for the vision impaired to make use of the techniques of artificial intelligence (see Tony's description on YouTube). His inventiveness expressed itself in a number of other ways: hearing aids for the deaf/blind, textured paving slabs, audible and tactile displays for pedestrian crossings, speech synthesized information displays (eg the Talking Bus Stop). The, now ubiquitous, Parking Sensor, a spin-off from the Sonic Pathfinder, was patented in 1983. Sadly it did not 'take off big time' until the year 2000, by which time the patent had expired! During the period spent at Nottingham Tony obtained a second PhD; this time in Psychology.
Tony has spent some time as a Visiting Research Fellow at: The Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco , where he worked with Paul Bach-y-Rita who is now regarded as one of the founding figures of Neuroplasticity. Also at the Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo and the British Telecom Research Laboratories , Martlesham. And as a Research Associate at the Centre for Visual Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Tony has published some forty scientific papers and holds a number of UK patents. In 1987 Tony was invited to move to Australia and take up the newly created post of Manager, Research and Development with the Royal Guide Dogs Associations of Australia (RGDAA).
In 1995 Tony left RGDAA and formed his own business, Perceptual Alternatives. He continues to maintain formal academic relationships with a number of University departments having been an Associate of the Photonics Red Centre , a Research Associate of the Department of Optometry at the University of Melbourne and a part time lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences at La Trobe University. In addition to his work on disability Tony has undertaken regular consultative assignments for industry specializing in: man/machine interface problems, remote sensing and the safe transportation of volatile substances. Sometimes projects can be a lot of fun. Tony worked with a young inventor, Steve Steer, to develop Tackle Tracka: the world's first fishing rod mounted computer.
Since 2005 Tony has been a Tutor with the University of the Third Age (U3A) where he enjoys teaching a range of subjects, for example: Cosmology, Physics, the History and Philosophy of Science, the History of Evidenced Based Medicine, etc..
When required to declare his occupation, Tony describes himself as a 'Gentleman Scientist'. He is a keen cyclist, bushwalker and windsurfer. As a partially sighted bird watcher he claims to see more UFOs in a day than most people see in a lifetime. He is a reader of New Scientist and a member of the Australian Skeptics.
A Secular Humanist, Tony served for seven years on the Human Research & Ethics Committee at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital - a part of the University of Melbourne.
In 2018 Tony was invited to be an Honourary Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne.
Tony may be contacted by email: Tony.Heyes@gmail.com
Tony's web page is named after his travel aid for the blind: SonicPathfinder.org