The device which sends visual input through tongue in much the same way that seeing individuals receive visual input through the eyes is called the ?Brainport Vision Device?. BrainPort could provide vision-impaired people with limited forms of sight. To produce tactile vision, BrainPort uses a camera to capture visual data. The optical information -- light that would normally hit the retina -- that the camera picks up is in digital form, and it uses radio signals to send the ones and zeroes to the CPU for encoding. Each set of pixels in the camera's light sensor corresponds to an electrode in the array. The CPU runs a program that turns the camera's electrical information into a spatially encoded signal. The encoded signal represents differences in pixel data as differences in pulse characteristics such as frequency, amplitude and duration. Technically, this device is underlying a principle called ?electrotactile stimulation for sensory substitution?, an area of study that involves using encoded electric current to represent sensory information and applying that current to the skin, which sends the information to the brain.
The brain is capable of major reorganization of function at all ages, and for many years following brain damage. It is also capable of adapting to substitute sensory information following sensory loss (blindness; tactile loss in Leprosy; damaged vestibular system due to ototoxicity, or general balance deficit as result of stroke or brain trauma), providing a suitable human-machine interface is used (reviewed in Bach-y-Rita, 1995; in press). One such interface is the tongue BrainPort interface (Bach-y-Rita, et al 1998; Tyler, et al, 2003).
The major objective of this study was to estimate feasibility and efficacy of an electro-tactile vestibular substitution system (ETVSS) in aiding recovery of posture control in patients with bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) during sitting and standing.
Subjects used the BrainPort balance device for a period from 3 to 5 days. Subjects readily perceived both position and motion of a small 'target' stimulus on the tongue display, and interpreted this information to make corrective postural adjustments, causing the target stimulus to become centered. With two twenty minute sessions a day significant functional improvement lasts the whole day.
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