Tongue Stim Mimics Very Bad Vision

This morning's paper has a big article on Bach-y-Rita's infamous tongue/vision simulator (he was a hometown prof and his follow-on company is local). Seeing as how I'm moderating the Better Living Through Cyborgs (reg required) panel next weekend, I cruised a little to see the context for the Wisconsin State Journal's breathless article .

It began life as PR from the UW's press office, which got picked up on the NIH website:

Check the first sentence of this 2nd paragraph:

Erik Weihenmayer has climbed mountains around the world—the highest peaks, in fact, on every continent. One afternoon a few years ago, however, a climbing wall in a local gym served as the setting of a most memorable journey.

On a typical climb, Weihenmayer is confined to arms-length maneuvers, feeling for holds with his hands. That day in the gym, he scanned the wall with a video camera and his tongue, via a device known as BrainPort. For the first time, he lunged for a hold that was 4 feet away.

Isn't confined to arms-length maneuvers pretty much the case for anyone with, well, arms who's mountain climbing? He's climbed the highest mountains on six continents, and they have to find some way to define him as lacking?

I was thrilled that within the top five hits I found a competitor's website (since there's usually zero competition in the assistive tech biz): The vOICe but know nothing of its efficacy.