

BrainPort allows people to "see" via their tongues - viraptor
http://vision.wicab.com/technology/

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nico
Looks like they want to make more people blind with that awfully small font
and a lot of cluttered text. A bit sarcastic that a product for the blind has
a pretty universally inaccessible site.

Anyway, really cool and useful gadget. I hope most or all people who need it
get access to these devices in the future.

~~~
jrockway
Do screen readers read small text in a really soft voice? If not, I'm not sure
how text size matters to the blind.

------
viraptor
Also presented in an article from SciAm:
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=device-
lets...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=device-lets-blind-
see-with-tongues)

I wonder if eating something with a strong taste later on causes any "visual"
effects.

~~~
calcnerd256
Do flavors correspond to colors like timbres do?

~~~
jerf
I speculate, since I haven't got access to any more information than anybody
else, but probably not. Remember, the tongue's ability to "taste" is actually
quite limited; most "flavor" actually occurs in the nose, which this won't
affect at all.

It's faintly possible that some hypothetical future device could do something
with flavor, but it is another scale of engineering difficulty since it would
almost require that you are physically releasing molecules, as in, "fuel".
It's at least conceivable, since it's a myth that certain flavors are isolated
to certain parts of the tongue, but I'd expect that by the time we had the
nanotechnology chops to pull that off, we'd have real artificial eyes, and
quite possibly real artificial optic nerves, leaving the number of people who
would want such a device quite low.

~~~
calcnerd256
I only meant in the context of eating something after using the device. I'm
assuming seeing with the tongue would put one in a state of mind more ready to
accept sight on the tongue, so I wonder what colors would do right after that.
I guess it's also worth wondering if fizzy drinks would feel like tv snow.

------
RiderOfGiraffes
See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=780543>

