This was in Wired over 2 years ago. Basically, your brain can take new signals and figure out the data for itself. Sort of like a usb port for your head. You literally plug in a new sense. They can already do these procedures, including implanting a camera in the pupil of a blind person, hooking it up to the brain, and giving them vision (very far from 20/20, but alot better than blind). It works, but it's still years from being viable.
I think within the next decade though it will be just as common in the States to see somebody with sockets on their skin as somebody with a seeing eye dog or hearing aids.
