Tongue device enables blinded soldier to see

730AM GMT sixteen Mar 2010

Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg with the device. Photo Lewis Whyld/PA

L/Cpl Craig Lundberg, 24, from Walton, Liverpool, can review words, brand shapes and travel around unaided interjection to the BrainPort device, notwithstanding being all blind.

The Liverpool fan, who plays blind football for England, lost his steer after being struck by a rocket-propelled explosive device whilst portion in Basra in 2007.

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He was faced with the awaiting of relying on a guide dog or shaft for the rest of his life.

But he was selected by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to be the initial chairman to hearing a pioneering device the BrainPort, that could shift diagnosis for the blind.

The BrainPort converts visible images in to a array of electrical pulses that are sent to the tongue, the opposite strength of the tingles can be review or interpreted so the user can mentally visualize their vicinity and navigate around objects.

The device is comprised of a little video camera trustworthy to a span of sunglasses that are related to a cosmetic ""lolly pop"" that the user places on their tongue to review the electrical pulses.

L/Cpl Lundberg explained ""It feels similar to beating a 9 volt battery or similar to popping candy.

""The camera sends signals down onto the lolly cocktail and onto your tongue, you can afterwards establish what they meant and send it to shapes.

""You get lines and shapes of things, it sees in black and white so you get a dual dimensional picture on your tongue, it"s a bit similar to a pins and needles sensation.

""It"s usually a prototype, but the intensity to shift my hold up is massive, it"s got a lot of intensity to allege things for blind people.

""One of the things it has enabled me to do is collect up objects true away, I can reach out and collect them up when prior to I would be fumbling around to feel for them.""

The BrainPort was combined in the US.

L/Cpl Lundberg combined ""There no approach I"m removing absolved of my guide dog Hugo though I love him. This is an additional mobility device, it"s not the be all and finish all of my disability."