A new device called BrainPort created by Wicab, Inc. is a fascinating little gadget that will cause many to rethink they way they understand the functioning of the brain.
It is generally understood that the optic nerves in the eye receive visual information and move it along to the primary visual cortex where our brain interprets the world around us in a visual way. Blindness is the condition that, more or less, interrupts this process in one way or another.
BrainPort, however, will allow many blind individuals to see by translating visual stimuli into….wait for it….taste.
visual data are collected through a small digital video camera about 1.5 centimeters in diameter that sits in the center of a pair of sunglasses worn by the user. Bypassing the eyes, the data are transmitted to a handheld base unit, which is a little larger than a cell phone. This unit houses such features as zoom control, light settings and shock intensity levels as well as a central processing unit (CPU), which converts the digital signal into electrical pulses—replacing the function of the retina.From the CPU, the signals are sent to the tongue via a “lollipop,” an electrode array about nine square centimeters that sits directly on the tongue. Each electrode corresponds to a set of pixels. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse, whereas black pixels translate into no signal. Densely packed nerves at the tongue surface receive the incoming electrical signals, which feel a little like Pop Rocks or champagne bubbles to the user.
Scientists aren’t sure how the brain is processing this information. Nonetheless, the functionality of the device is remarkable:
Seiple works with four patients who train with the BrainPort once a week and notes that his patients have learned how to quickly find doorways and elevator buttons, read letters and numbers, and pick out cups and forks at the dinner table without having to fumble around. “At first, I was amazed at what the device could do,” he said. “One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.”
Although BrianPort isn’t on the market quite yet, it is expect to be available quite soon. And even though it won’t be cheap (an estimated $10,000 price tag is being thrown about), I can’t imagine that you can put a price on regaining the ability to “see.”
This translating one sense to another boggles my mind. Is it possible to do the same with others? Can we allow deaf people to see sound (not subtitles)? Can we hear smells? Feel taste?
T. Keith Edmunds
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Colin Corneau