The brain doesn�t care where visual input comes from. So why not see with a camera jacked into your tongue?
Don�t fly by the seat of your pants. That mantra is drilled into every pilot�s head in flight school. It means pay no attention to the g-forces pushing against your ass; and keep your eyes on your instruments. If you don�t, and your plane is in a spin or a loop, you could get caught thinking down is up. But as aviation technology evolves, the cockpit is filling up with new instruments, overwhelming the pilot�s ability to take it all in at a glance. Luckily, the eyes aren�t the only way to see. Pilots can now sense other aircraft from a tiny zap on their shoulders. And they�ll soon be able to land a helicopter in a dust storm with infrared images lightly buzzing their tongues.
The fact is, visual information doesn�t have to go through the eyes to get to the brain. Our sense organs are mere input devices � wet USB ports. The basic premise, known as plasticity, is that the brain can adapt to new data channels by rewiring itself. It�s a short step from there to sensory augmentation and substitution. New devices are extending pilots� perception of space, giving rudimentary sight to the blind, restoring balance to people whose vestibular systems have failed, even enabling orgasms. "A nerve spike is a nerve spike," says Paul Bach-y-Rita, professor of rehabilitation medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. "The brain doesn�t give a damn where the information is coming from."
SEE FOR THE FIRST TIME, FLY BLIND, HAVE GREAT SEX
Bach-y-Rita has been experimenting with brain plasticity since the 1960s, but only in the last few years has the hardware become compact enough to create practical sensory input devices. His latest technology sends visual data through the tongue, which is jam-packed with nerves and coated with conductive saliva. A video camera worn on the forehead sends images to a laptop, which dumbs down the picture to 144 pixels. That signal is sent to a soviet-gray box, called a Tactile Display Unit, which converts the image to electrical impulses. The current winds up on a matrix of electrodes that tingle the image onto the tongue. In lab tests, the system enabled blind people to recognize letters, catch rolling balls, and watch candles flicker for the first time.
But a sensory substitution system needn�t be for substitution alone. Researchers at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition used Bach-y-Rita�s ideas to cram a pilot�s brain with expanded spatial awareness akin to sight. Instead of electrodes on the tongue, the Tactile Situation Awareness System uses a flight suit embedded with as many as 96 transducers � mini-vibrators like the ones found in cell phones. The TSAS makes pilots less dependent on their eyes. "The visual workload has gone up so high that we�re seeing an increase in the number of human factor-related mishaps," says Anil Raj, who heads the program at the University of West Florida. Now pilots can gauge their orientation from a buzz on the torso. If the plane banks left, they feel a zap on the left. If the plane makes a 180-degree turn, the zap will travel from one side of the body to the other. It usually takes months of training before pilots can look at their altimeters, attitude indicators, and compasses and understand a plane�s location in space. With TSAS, it takes 10 minutes.
Bach-y-Rita is adapting the system for stroke victims and others who have lost their sense of balance. He�s also working on a sensor-filled condom that, in theory, could channel sexual stimulation to the tongue (most men who�ve lost feeling below the waist still get erections). A little more funding and the system may soon fit into a wireless retainer that can snap onto the roof of the mouth. Videogamers will have a sixth sense. Navy SEALs, who complain that night-vision goggles destroy their eyes� natural ability to adjust to the dark, will scan dark beaches with their taste buds. Pilots will vibrate their way home. And the blind will see.
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