The BrainPort Vision Device

This is a bit old (as featured in Jeff Hawkins' On Intelligence), but I haven't seen it on HN, and SearchYC only brings up a few comments on this old submission: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=362657

I'm thinking about starting a project to put together a homebrew version, but I have zero hardware experience. Any hardware hackers in the NYC/Brooklyn area willing to get together to act as a mentor on a cool project? I'll probably start heading out to Resistor on Thursdays for their craft nights to get started.