Tongue 'display' helps you keep your balance

A device that relays a person's body movements to an array of electrodes on their tongue could help people with balance problems recover their poise, or wheelchair users avoid pressure sores.

The wireless "tongue display" being used by French researchers is worn in the mouth like an orthodontic retainer. A matrix of 36 electrodes on the underside transmits electrical impulses to the tongue.

"The sensation is a kind of 'ticklish' feeling," says Yohan Payan, a researcher at the TIMC lab near Grenoble, France.

"The idea is that if one of your senses is lacking, you try to use another sense to convey information", he says, adding that it initially takes around 10 minutes for people to learn to use the information from the display.

Source: technology.newscientist.comAdded: 11 June 2008