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 youre 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

