BrainPort vision device

Abstract

A new device to help the blind see has been developed by scientists. The electric lollipop or BrainPort vision device captures images using a tiny camera and then converts the image into tiny tingles on the tongue. The tingles are then sent to the brain which then converts the tingles into pictures. After a few days practicing people, who otherwise couldn’t see, were able to make out shapes, read signs and even read letters. This amazing new device may help people to interact with their environment in ways never before experiences.

Using the unique resources of the DOE national laboratories in materials sciences, micro fabrication, microelectrode construction, photochemistry and computer modeling, the project’s goal is to construct the device, capable of restoring vision, with materials that will last for the lifetime of a blind person. Just as blind people read words by touching Braille bumps, some are now able to “see” objects via a special lollipop that stimulates their taste buds. The extraordinary device converts images captured by a tiny camera into a series of electrical tingles, which can be felt on the tongue.
Nerves then send these messages to the brain, which turn the tingles back into pictures.

I.INTRODUCTION

An electric lollipop that allows the blind to ‘see’ using their tongue has been developed by scientists.

Fig.1 Position of BrainPort vision device

The machine is called and is manufactured by , a biomedical engineering company based in Middleton, Wis. It relies on sensory substitution, the process in which if one sense is damaged, the part of the brain that would normally control that sense can learn to perform another function.

About two million optic nerves are required to transmit visual signals from the retinathe portion of the eye where light information is decoded or translated into nerve pulsesto the brain’s primary visual cortex. With Brain Port, the device being developed by neuroscientists at Middleton, Wisc.based Wicab, Inc. (a company co-founded by ), 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. Part of the challenge of Brain Port is to train the brain to interpret the information it receives through the stimulation device and use it like data from a natural sense. Research from prototype devices showed such training is possible, as patients with severe bilateral vestibular loss could, after time, maintain near-normal posture control while sitting and walking, even on uneven surfaces.

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