[22575]

BBC News - Light-powered bionic eye invented to help restore sight

Early results of a trial in the UK mean two men have gone from being totally blind to being able to perceive light and even some shapes.

 

[MNiS]

Yeah, technology like this has been around for a while now only that it's banned in the US. Being fully powered by sunlight is pretty amazing though.

 

[sprinkles]

The light powered version is totally different than the ones mentioned as being UK trials - those are different devices which are just given as an example of the principle at work.

The ones the article refers to are actually much cooler in that they are smaller and wireless, and are meant to be used with a camera on glasses that shoots a beam of light to the chip.

This particular arrangement has not been tested on humans yet. It will be cool when it is, though, since an external camera means a possibility of preprocessing to make the light beam more suitable for interpretation by the chip, and brain.

 

[Stelmaria]

This particular arrangement has not been tested on humans yet. It will be cool when it is, though, since an external camera means a possibility of preprocessing to make the light beam more suitable for interpretation by the chip, and brain.

I still wonder how much te plasticity in the brain can do to bridge the gap. There is a potential for surprising results from these sorts of trials.

(and perhaps again in the future if novel new drugs or procedures are invented to assist the process)

 

[MyName]

 

[22575]

yesssssssss!

 

[MyName]

yesssssssss!

I hope we get Holodecks, transporters or replicators next.

 

[daguerrotypes]

Crazy awesome.