www.usatoday.com/tech/scie...arch_x.htm

www.wicab.com/index.html

"A narrow strip of red plastic connects the Brain Port to the tongue where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bulky-hand-held sonar devices, the divers can processes the information through their tongues, said Dr. Anil Raj, the project's lead scientist.

In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be commercially marketed soon, has restored balance to those whose vestibular systems in the inner ear were destroyed by antibiotics."


In addition to the applications mentioned in the article, if this technology were commerically available to anyone it could be used to enhance everyday reality & create new human senses - for example, having your brain directly perceive data input from sonar, and using it for large portions of each day: it'd be a new sense. And eventually, the creative among us should be able to hack into it, using the interface to add their own data to their field of perception.