Seeing with your Tongue

MelW told me about this film and article that describe how, with a special device, the blind can see basic shapes through their tongues!
It reminds me of Understanding the Mind on page 38 of the 2007 ed. where it says, "although snakes have no ears and so cannot develop ear awareness, they nevertheless have a special eye sense power that enables them to hear sounds with their eye awareness. ... The eye awareness of a Buddha can see, hear, taste, smell and touch."

Here's the YouTube video: http://youtu.be/OKd56D2mvN0

Here's the Scientific American article, titled "Tasting the Light: Device Lets the Blind 'See' with Their Tongues"; a few excerpts:

"About two million optic nerves are required to transmit visual signals from the retina—the portion of the eye where light information is decoded or translated into nerve pulses—to the brain's primary visual cortex. With BrainPort ... visual data are collected through a small digital video camera ... that sits in the center of a pair of sunglasses worn by the user. Bypassing the eyes, the data are transmitted to a handheld base unit, which is a little larger than a cell phone. This unit houses such features as zoom control, light settings and shock intensity levels as well as a central processing unit (CPU), which converts the digital signal into electrical pulses—replacing the function of the retina.

"From the CPU, the signals are sent to the tongue via a 'lollipop,' an electrode array about nine square centimeters that sits directly on the tongue. Each electrode corresponds to a set of pixels. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse, whereas black pixels translate into no signal. Densely packed nerves at the tongue surface receive the incoming electrical signals ...
It remains unclear whether the information is then transferred to the brain's visual cortex, where sight information is normally sent, or to its somatosensory cortex, where touch data from the tongue is interpreted.
...
"... patients have learned how to quickly find doorways and elevator buttons, read letters and numbers, and pick out cups and forks at the dinner table without having to fumble around. 'At first, I was amazed at what the device could do,' he said. One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.'' "