There are definitely a lot of things you can do with your tongue. From eating ice cream to feeling the milk from a baby's bottle. But have you ever considered that you might be using your tongue for other activities such as... seeing? I didn't either but that doesn't stop the scientists at Wicab from developing the BrainPort device, now, does it? A device that uses a small 1.5-centimeter (approximate size) digital camera to capture images and send them to a handheld unit the size of a cellphone.

According to this very interesting article I read about in Scientific American, the device then sends signals to the tongue via an electrode array that corresponds to a certain set of pixels.

It is not exactly clear whether the information is being sent to the visual cortex or the somatosensory cortex part of the brain but what is clear is that, in its final stage, it might give blind people the ability to finally see what we normally take for granted.

How about we take a look at what optometrist Amy Nau had to say about the device she will be testing? “Many people who have acquired blindness are desperate to get their vision back. […] We can't just throw up an eye chart. We have to take a step back and describe the rudimentary precepts that these people are getting. […] The images are in black and white, pixilated. How do you recheck vision?”

Since the device seems to already be in functional state (can't test something that doesn't work, right?) I have only one question to ask: when will color and Full HD 1080p be done? Jokes aside, the gadget is extremely interesting since it can restore at least a bit of the user's sight without using any intrusive means.


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .