If you ever find yourself looking at modern medical tech and thinking “This is it?”, take a gander at the “BrainPort” device fitted to Craig Lundberg’s tongue. Craig was tragically wounded when a grenade exploded near him, rending his eyesight null and void. But the BrainPort is bringing it all back. Slowly at first, but with time and development, could be the next big thing for those with little-to-no eyesight.
The BrainPort at first sounds pretty odd — a camera mounted on the person sends information to a probe fixed to an individual’s tongue. It is there that a black&white 2D image is somehow passed through the tongue and into the respective areas in the brain via electrical pulses allowing the wearer to “see” once again. It’s not perfect yet as the wearer cannot eat or speak while wearing the contraption. Anything is better than nothing though.
According to Craig, the BrainPort is like “licking a 9V battery”. Hey, if I were in Craig’s shoes, I’d lick 9V batteries all day to regain even a smidgen of my previous eyesight. Wouldn’t you?
