Seeing with your tongue?

Sometimes technology just further enables the weird but many times is does something amazing. This story would fall into the amazing category. It’s a story from CBS News that looks at a technology being developed to help the blind see via their tongue. Yes, tongue. Called BrainPort it works t like this: a camera is mounted on a person’s head and connected to a receiver worn around the neck. Attached to the receiver box is a sensor with tiny electrodes that stimulate the tongue, based on what the camera is “seeing.” The BrainPort sends signals to the brain, and a blind person can eventually learn to send those signals from the touch area of the brain to the visual cortex. The CBS story says images appear grainy but in the coming months and years the company hopes to refine it further. The story also points out that BrainPort doesn’t really fully recreate sight but for completely blind people it will be a major boost.