They were three small words, but their meaning was huge. Sitting in a lab at the University of Pittsburgh last week to help test the BrainPort vision device, Jose Neto read out the words projected onto a wall in front of him. For a person who is totally blind — as Neto has been for over two-and-a-half years since he was shot in the face by a bullet in Chinatown — identifying words on a wall is revolutionary. And so is the study taking place here to test the prototype of a device that aims to introduce a new type of vision for those who can’t see.
