'Lollipop' Device Helps Reveal Shapes To the Blind - washingtonpost.com

Don't even know what to say about this, except WOW! Amazing technology.

'Lollipop' Device Helps Reveal Shapes To the Blind - washingtonpost.com:

Blinded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, technology is helping Marine Cpl. Mike Jernigan to at least make out shapes. From the WashingtonPost.com

"He has been given a special "lollipop," a device that uses his tongue to stimulate his visual cortex and send sensory information to his brain. ...called the intra-oral device, or IOD, the lollipop is an inch-square grid with 625 small round metal pieces. It is connected by a wire to a small camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses and to a hand-held controller about the size of a BlackBerry. The camera sends an image to the lollipop, which transmits a low-voltage pulse to Jernigan's tongue. With training, Jernigan has learned to translate that pulse into pictures. He can now identify the shapes of what is in front of him, even though both of his eyes have been removed.

'It's kind of like Braille that you use with your fingers,' said Amy Nau, an optometrist who is researching the effectiveness of the device at the University of Pittsburgh. 'Instead of symbols, it's a picture, and instead of your fingertips, it's your tongue.'"