Lollypop-Like Device Lets Blind Soldier 'See'

Camera sends current to tongue; brain can visualize
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 15, 2010 7:47 PM CDT

A lollypop-like device hooked up to a video camera is allowing a British soldier blinded in Iraq to “see” with his tongue. Craig Lundberg, 24, wears sunglasses with the camera embedded, the Guardian reports; the camera then turns his surroundings into electric currents sent to Lundberg’s tongue, and he can visualize obstacles well enough to navigate them.

“It feels like licking a 9-volt battery or like popping candy,” Lundberg explained. “It’s only a prototype, but the potential to change my life is massive. It has enabled me to pick up objects straight away, I can reach out and pick them up when before I would be fumbling around.”
(More Iraq war stories.)

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