Now You Can See with Your Tongue
Scientists and engineers around the world always in developing science and technology to make human life easier and comfortable. Now technology has developed to an extent that damaged or dysfunctional human organs can be replaced with artificial ones. In replacing dysfunctional human organ with an artificial one, the challenge was to interface this artificial organ to the brain. In this regards the number of sensory -substitution devices being developed that uses the human brain in a remarkable way.
A similar invention was made by Paul Batch-Y-Rita was known as “the father of sensory substitution” in 1969. Today this device is known as Brain Port. In 1998 Paul Batch-Y-Rita founded a company, Wicab to commercialize his invention. First brain port was very complicated and too much different from the brain port we use today. This can help about 285 million people around the world with visual impairment to live with more comfort.
Brain Port
Brain port is an aid to people’s sense balance particularly of stroke and accident victims, also for abnormal born people. It consists of a wearable video camera, user control, rechargeable battery and array of electrodes chip. The headset is fully adjustable and available in different sizes. The camera works in a variety of lighting conditions and has an adjustable field of view. The tongue chip contains an array of 394 electrodes and is connected to the headset through a flexible cable.
Brain port translates digital information from the wearable video camera into gentle electrical stimulation patterns on the tongue surface. The user feels moving bubble-like patterns on his tongue. These bubbles like patterns are then interpreted by the human brain into shape, size location, and motion of objects in the surrounding.
The idea that underlies sensory substitution is that the brain is capable of processing perceptual information in much the same way, independent of the which organ delivers it.
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