Bionic eye will let the blind see
Posted on Thu 15th January 2009
US and German scientists have designed a bionic eye to allow blind people to see again.
It comprises a computer chip that sits in the back of the individual's eye, linked up to a mini video camera built into glasses that they wear.
Images captured by the camera are beamed to the chip, which translates them into impulses that the brain can interpret. Although the images produced by the artificial eye were far from perfect, they could be clear enough to allow someone who is otherwise blind to recognise faces.
The breakthrough is likely to benefit patients with the most common
cause of blindness, macular degeneration, which affects 500,000 people
in the UK.
This occurs when there is damage to the macula, which is in the central
part of the retina where light is focussed and changed into nerve
signals in the middle of the brain.
This is a revolutionary piece of technology and really has the
potential to change people's lives. But we need to be aware it is still
some way in the future
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