Blind People: Device Lets You 'See' With Your Tongue

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the BrainPort V100 on Thursday--a device intended to aid blind people in actually seeing with the help of their tongue by dispensing visual images. 

The Wisconsin-based company, Wicab, Inc., created the battery-opertated device via a tiny video camera that is mounted on a pair of glasses with a small mouthpiece carrying nearly 400 electrodes.

Users simply place the mouthpiece on their tongue while the camera collects images that are altered by electrical signals. The signals create a tingling sensation with bubble-like patterns, converting visual data into electrical stimuli.

"People are able to learn to interpret these patterns of bubbles or stimulation on their tongue to know what object is in front of them," Robert Beckman, chief executive officer of the company, said in a statement, comparing use of the device to also potentially learning a new language.

Seventy-four subjects experienced the BrainPort V100, according to the FDA. From the sample, 69 percent were able to "see" objects in front of them. Some patients did experience slight side-effects, including "burning, stinging or metallic taste," when placing the mouthpiece on their tongue. However, at this time, no serious problems have been reported.

The device has been cleared for the use of nearly 250,000 blind Americans without sensitivity to light and will cost an estimated $10,000.

The company received permission to sell the BrainPort V100 in Europe in 2013 after 15 years of research. Now it will be marketed in the United States where an estimated 1.2 million blind people can potentially be helped by the device that will complement other forms of assistance meant for blind individuals.

Though most regard blindness as the inability to see at all or to discern light from darkness, the National Federation of the Blind takes a much broader stance on the term, including persons whose sight are bad enough--even with corrective lenses--that they require alternative methods to engage in activities that persons with normal visions would do using their eyes. Furthermore, almost all statistics on blindness are estimates, meaning that figures in samples are extrapolated to the entire population.

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