What is the BrainPort vision device?

The BrainPort vision device is an investigational non-surgical assistive visual prosthetic device that translates information from a digital video camera to your tongue, through gentle electrical stimulation.

    

How is the BrainPort vision device related to the Tongue Display Unit (TDU)? 

The TDU is the first prototype of the technology that has evolved into today's BrainPort vision device.

 Who could benefit from the BrainPort vision device?

The current investigational prototype works best for individuals who are blind and have no better than light perception.  Since we do not stimulate the eye or optic nerve, our technology has the potential to work across a wide range of visual impairments.  We are actively developing device modifications to address the needs for those with low vision such as macular degeneration.   

How does the BrainPort vision device work?

The BrainPort vision system consists of a postage-stamp-size electrode array for the top surface of the tongue (the tongue array), a base unit, a digital video camera, and a hand-held controller for zoom and contrast inversion. Visual information is collected from the user-adjustable head-mounted camera (FOV range 3–90 degrees) and sent to the BrainPort base unit. The base unit translates the visual information into an stimulation pattern that is displayed on the tongue.  The tactile image is created by presenting white pixels from the camera as strong stimulation, black pixels as no stimulation, and gray levels as medium levels of stimulation, with the ability to invert contrast when appropriate.  Users often report the sensation as pictures that are painted on the tongue with Champagne bubbles.

With the current system (arrays containing 100 to 600+ electrodes), study participants have been able to recognize high-contrast objects, their location, movement, and some

aspects of perspective and depth. Trained blind participants use information from the tongue display to augment understanding of the environment. Our ongoing research with the BrainPort vision device demonstrates the great potential of tactile vision augmentation and we believe that these findings warrant further exploration. As a result, we are currently working on improvements to the tongue display hardware, software, and usability,  and on overall device miniaturization.

What is the resolution of the display?

The images below demonstrate how information from the video camera is represented on the tongue. Today's prototypes have 400 to 600 points of information on a ~3cm x 3cm tongue display, presented at approximately 30 frames per second, yielding an information rich image stream.  Our research suggests that the tongue is capable of resolving much higher resolution information and we are currently working to develop the optimal tongue display hardware and software.

  Original 100 points 625 points 3600 points

Static

       Dynamic 

How long does it take to learn?

Our current research studies involve participation between 2-10 hours*.  Within minutes of introduction, users may understand where in space stimulation arises (up, down, left and right) and the direction of movement.  Within an hour of practice, users can generally identify and reach for nearby objects, and point to and estimate the distance of objects out of reach.  With additional training, subjects can identify letters and numbers and can recognize landmark information when using the device in a mobile scenario. 

Will I experience vision similar to what I once had?

After a few hours of training, some users have described the experience as resembling a low-resolution version of the vision they once had. In addition, neuroimaging research suggests that for blind individuals, visual regions of the brain are activated while using the BrainPort vision device.  Ultimately, the experience is uniquely individual.  However, the resulting perception does not need to "feel" like eye-based vision in order to provide assistive benefit. 

 Can Electrical Stimulation Hurt My Tongue?

You can adjust the intensity of the stimulation to your comfort level. Participants have reported that the impulses feel like champagne bubbles effervescing on their tongue.

How can I obtain the BrainPort vision device?

The BrainPort vision device is an investigational prototype and is not yet for sale in the US or abroad.  Wicab plans to develop an assistive device suitable for commercial introduction in the near future.  In the meantime, the prototype BrainPort vision device is being used in research studies across the country to measure perceptual enhancement resulting from BrainPort vision device use*. 

 Are there research studies that I may be eligible to participate?*

A number of academic and research institutions have had or will have studies using the BrainPort vision device with specific participation requirements.  Please contact us for more information.  If you are a research institution and would like to conduct research with the BrainPort vision device, please contact us for options regarding collaboration.

British soldier Craig Lundberg came in March 2007 during a grenade explosion in Iraq’s Basra on sight. Now began for the basic orientation in space instead of eye use language. It allowed him to proprietary technology using language as a mediator between the camcorder and brain.

BrainPort system developed by the U.S. firm Wicab. The glasses are placed in a small video camera, from which the signal is transmitted to the flat plate the size of a postage stamp, the user puts on the tongue.

Plate bears the active matrix of points that stimulate a weak electrical signal cells on the tongue. Their spatial arrangement while cameras captured the scene. The points actually fulfilling the role of image pixels to digital photography, but is instead one eye sees the surface of language. The brain is capable of so adopted to reconstruct the image signal.

The method is surprisingly effective. Lundberg even recognize the capital letters on the test board by an eye doctor. Reading books, of course, but nowhere near enough. “I felt the language that the first letter is A. It was amazing. Then I went down the hall and I could tell the door, walls and people who went against me,” said Lundberg British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Electrical signals on the tongue apparently most of all resemble a roaring sip champagne with bubbles of carbon dioxide. Signal is not only a binary (light / dark), is able to convey the degree of gray, that distinguishes the signal strength in each points.

Currently, the area bears the plate 3×3 inches 600 points, sending an electrical signal, so the resulting “picture” is very rude. The signal changes very quickly, and thirty times per second, so it is able to convey the moving objects.

BrainPort is the equivalent of nearly 300 thousand crowns. If proven, could help to further blind. It does not use the optic nerve, so its use is entirely independent of the

nature of visual impairment. Not everyone is expected to be able to learn to “read” the language of the electrical signals so well that he BrainPort in the orientation actually helped.

Photo: Wicab, profimedia.cz

Source:tyden.cz