In Teh Future(OMG!), People Will See With Their Tongues.

Scientists at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition have found a way to use the tongue to give soldiers extrasensory abilities. A device known as "Brain Port" provides users with owl-like 360-degree vision at night. It gives Navy SEALs whale-like sonar capabilities that allow them to navigate without using a compass -- or even their eyes.

Using a gross of microelectrodes, they translate artificially-acquired sense data (e.g. sonar, compass reading and who knows what else) into touch sensations on your tongue. It seems the reason they picked the tongue is that it has scads and scads of nerve endings. I know of another body part that's just as sensitive ...

*ahem*

Sorry.

Anyway, Michael Zinszer, Navy diver and underwater crime scene investigator, tested out a prototype and had this to say:

"You are feeling the outline of this image [with your tongue]. I was in the pool, they were directing me to a very small object and I was able to locate everything very easily."

Apparently, it's a sensation very similar to Pop Rocks.

Originally found here a.k.a. Peter Watt's Newscrawl. Buy Blindsight!!

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Personal note: This appears to be a parallel (albeit militarized) take on The Voice - which I mentioned earlier by the by :p