[stylist] seeing with your tongue

[Allison Nastoff]

Hi Everyone,
Since this list has been talking about technology that would 
allow the blind to drive, I thought it would be interesting to 
start a discussion on a story I saw on yesterday's episode of 
Good Morning America.  The story was about technology being 
developed that projects images on to the tongue using electrical 
signals that the blind can feel, which in a sense allows them to 
"see with their tongue".  I hope you don't mind me cross posting 
this since it was discussed on another NFB list, but since it was 
off topic for that list, I thought it would be interesting to 
continue the discussion on this list.
I also wanted to get your opinions because when I was in sixth 
grade, I participated in a research study for this technology at 
a local college when it was very early in its development.  I 
dropped out of the study after the first year, and maybe in the 
years since, the technology has improved.  But I remember that 
when I was in the study, the strip that I put on to my tongue 
extended from a large machine which sent the electrical 
stimulation to my tongue.  This machine was connected to a camera 
which sent the images to a computer, and a board covered with 
cloth to create a white background also had to be set up behind 
the camera.  So the point I am trying to make is that this was 
way too much gear to walk around my kitchen or go rock climbing 
with the way the blind participants did in this segment.  But it 
also seemed kind of impractical because it was hard to tell what 
the shapes were, even when it came to braille dots which I read 
expertly with my fingers, and I know I can locate objects around 
the kitchen much faster with my fingers.  Don't get me wrong.  
The concept of seeing with your tongue is pretty cool, and I 
understand how it could be useful for people like the man 
featured in this video since he went blind as an adult, but since 
I have been blind all of my life, I wonder if investing in this 
kind of technology makes sense, or if it would be more beneficial 
to invest the resources in teaching people to adapt to their 
blindness with the traditional, and I think more efficient way, 
using your fingers, ears and nose, or at least invest in 
technology that restores sight for real, rather than just coming 
up with some weird inefficient contraption to see with their 
tongue.  What do you all think? Is there anyone else on this list 
who has participated in research for this kind of technology? If 
so, what were your feelings about it? I am always interested in 
getting other people's perspectives about innovations like this.  
Here is the link to the story.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/helping-blind-people-tongues-1147
7360
Allison Nastoff