This Device Lets Blind People ‘See’ With Their Tongues

Daniel Bean
·Assistant Editor
Updated
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A new gadget that helps the visually impaired “see” with their tongues has just been approved by the FDA, one of the most important hurdles the six-year-old project had to cross before coming to consumers in the U.S.

Called the BrainPort V100, the gadget’s glasses-mounted camera turns what it sees into electronic pulses that are then sent to the tongue by a wired electrode placed inside the wearer’s mouth. The makers of BrainPort say that, with training, the device can be used by the blind to interpret location, position, size, and shape of objects ahead of them, and also determine whether objects are moving or stationary.

“[BrainPort is not vision.] It is more like a 400-point refreshable Braille display from which you learn to interpret the bubble-like patterns on their tongue as representative of objects in their surroundings,” the company explains on its website.

There’s no info yet on when exactly the BrainPort V100 will go on sale to the public, but Popular Science has reported that the parent company, Wicab Inc., plans to price the first-of-its-kind device at $10,000.

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You can mark this down as one more human impairment that’s taking a licking from bold advancements in tech.

Email me at danbean@yahoo-inc.com. Follow me on Twitter at danielwbean.

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