Official News - page 5

REAL LIFE NEWS: BIONIC EYES GET BETTER

by Hazed

Back in 2005, news reports told us about a man who had been blind for 50 years regaining some sight using an implant that allowed him to distinguish between light and dark, detect movement, and identify objects such as a cup, a plate and a knife - despite only having 16 pixels to work with.

Now a new version of the electronic implant has boosted the definition available to 60 pixels which holds out the promise of restoring much more functionality to lost vision. On Thursday, the team who were behind the original implant told reporters they were ready to use surgery to insert the more advanced version of the implant in some of the original subjects. "What we are trying to do is take real time images and convert them into electrical pulses that will jump-start the otherwise blind eye," Professor Mark Humayan of the University of South California explained.

The test subjects will wear glasses with a camera built into the nosepiece. The camera will send a signal to the implant via a processor which converts the image so that the electrodes in place of the damaged retina can communicate it to the optic nerve.

The new version of the implant should be clinically available in two years, and cost about the same as a cochlear implant for deafness - around $30,000.

Humayan wouldn't speculate about exactly what the patients would be able to see. Last time the expectation was for no more than the ability to distinguish light and dark, so it was much more successful than anybody dreamed it would be. This time? We'll have to wait and... well, see!

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