Rewiring the senses - seeing with the tongue (cure for the blind)

[keikiwai]

It's pretty hard to surprise me when it comes to discoveries in science, but this one really got me.

Basically, take a video camera and connect the output to your tongue... that's it (well, not really, but it's the basic idea). It lets blind people see, and even people who can see can close their eyes and try it. I about it on the World's Technology Podcast.

Some links:

The Dec 2006 podcast I heard (it's at the end of the show)

http://www.theworld.org/pod/tech/podcast130.mp3

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/stor...551&page=1

http://discovermagazine.com/2003/jun/feattongue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKd56D2mvN0



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If / when this gets off the ground on a large scale, this will change lives in a big way.

Stuff of science fiction.

Not sure if this is enough for a thread, as it's basically just an info blurb, but I found it really interesting and it obv. has big potential impacts.

[eviljeff]

if you saw someone with one of these things, how long would you follow them around?

[lippy]

That YouTube video sums this up pretty well. I really wonder what the progression of this technology would mean for blind people. And, you're right, this looks right out of Star Trek.

[guids]

If you guys have a chance, there is a modern marvels on teh history channel that has this device on it, with a bunch of other really cool electronic-for-humans type stuff. A computer that can be controlled by thinking, growing single organs out of a petri dish etc.

[GTL]

[ QUOTE ]
If you guys have a chance, there is a modern marvels on teh history channel that has this device on it, with a bunch of other really cool electronic-for-humans type stuff. A computer that can be controlled by thinking, growing single organs out of a petri dish etc.

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yeah, i've read and seen a bunch of stuff about controlling computers by thinking. this is another technology that i think will be insanely cool once it takes off and gets very finely tuned. everything i've seen is just being able to play pong by thinking left or right. it will be nuts when we can surf the web and type a paper just by thinking of what we want the computer to do.

[BillytheKidd]

I really look forward to typing via thought, I would finally be able to write those books I've been working on in my mind for the last 10 years.

[bucktotal]

ya very cool, but it is truly the computational power associated with the technology that is impressive, rather than our understanding of brain function.

and while we may one be able to move a cursor around a screen (essentially 3 degrees of freedom vertical/horizontal/click-doubleclick) using thoughts, we are soooooooo far from being able to detect specific language constructs, especially from a surface electrode (as opposed to implanted wires in the brain), that this whole thought typing is just not going to happen in our lifetime... sorry.