Despite being totally blind, Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, age 24, from Walton, Liverpool, can read words, identify shapes and walk unaided. Why? Well, it is all thanks to something called a BrainPort device. This young man lost his sight after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade while serving in Basra in 2007, and he was was chosen by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to be the first person to trial a pioneering device.
How does this device work? In short, signals get sent to your tongue, and one uses his tongue to “see.” Essentially, it is a camera hooked up to a pair of sunglasses that is connected to a lollipop-like gadget that the user places on his tongue to read the electrical pulses. This whole set up converts visual images into a series of electrical pulses, which are sent to the tongue. The pulses and tingles can all be interpreted to mean different things so that the user can mentally visualize any surroundings and navigate around objects.
Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg says that, “”It feels like licking a nine volt battery or like popping candy…You get lines and shapes of things. It sees in black and white, so you get a two-dimensional image on your tongue – it’s a bit like a pins and needles sensation.” I am not sure if that sounds like a comfortable sensation to me, but I certainly would trade tingles on my tongue in exchange for being able to “see” and walk without a guide.
Before using the BrainPort device, Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg had been planning on spending the rest of this life with a guide dog and a cane. However, now that this device has come into his life, things have turned around for him. It is not the end-all-be-all solution, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. When asked about whether he was going to keep his dog he replied, “There is no way I’m getting rid of my guide dog Hugo, though – I love him.”
For future work on this device, researchers hope to create a smaller version that would enable users to eat and speak while using the device.
