Tongue Vision From: IEEE Spectrum - 01/2007 - page 44 By: Sandra Upson Imagine being blindfolded and having an array of electrodes sitting on your tongue. Around your neck hangs a flat box containing a microprocessor, and your lips close around a long cord that connects to the box and a camera. The cord dangles halfway down your chest, as if you’re drooling electronics. While you tentatively direct the camera, you feel your tongue vibrate at tiny discrete points that form a circle. The electronics in your mouth are telling you that you are facing a round object. It might be a tennis ball right in front of you. But then again, it might be a hot-air balloon a kilometer away. You really can't tell. The main idea of the BrainPort is to help blind people by translating visual information into tactile cues. A video feed is reduced to simple shapes, which are then drawn on the tongue by activating certain electrodes, each of which applies a small voltage that lightly tingles the tissue. As you turn the camera to explore an area, the electrodes respond with different patterns of mild zaps to indicate the shapes of objects in the camera's field of view. The sensory experience of the BrainPort, in visual terms, is a flat world rendered in blurry, monochromatic silhouettes. Read the entire article at: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/4838 Note: This project is classified as a "Loser" Tech Project in the Biomedical field. Links: Wicab - BrainPort http://www.wicab.us How BrainPort Works http://science.howstuffworks.com/brainport.htm Scientists Probe the Use of the Tongue http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1881775 Sensory Substitution http://der-mo.net/feelSpace/en/research_01.html Paul Bach-y-Rita http://www.engr.wisc.edu/bme/faculty/bachy-rita_paul.html http://www.tiresias.org/research/cr1_b.htm Electrocutaneous or vibrotactile display http://www.seeingwithsound.com/sensub.htm