Hacking the senses

Researchers have been able to create new human senses of a sort…and to cross-pollinate two different senses in order to, for example, see with your tongue.

With Arnoldussen behind me carrying the laptop, I walked around the Wicab offices. I managed to avoid most walls and desks, scanning my head from side to side slowly to give myself a wider field of view, like radar. Thinking back on it, I don’t remember the feeling of the electrodes on my tongue at all during my walkabout. What I remember are pictures: high-contrast images of cubicle walls and office doors, as though I’d seen them with my eyes.

I am reminded of magnetic fingers and the boy who sees through echolocation. I wouldn’t mind a sense of maps that worked via smell…follow the cinnamon scent to your destination or some such.

• science
• senses