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Bionic Eye Could Restore Vision
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Feb 16, 2007 06:15 PM
from the we-have-the-technology dept.
from the we-have-the-technology dept.
MattSparkes writes "A new bionic eye could restore vision to the profoundly blind. A prototype was tested on six patients and 'within a few weeks all could detect light, identify objects and even perceive motion again. For one patient, this was the first time he had seen anything in half a century.' The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer's pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer's head."
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Science: Bionic Cat Eye Implants Aid Blindness Research 94 comments
docinthemachine writes with news of felines getting human retinal implants. The cats were afflicted with a version of retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that also blinds humans. The implants are 2-millimeter-wide chips surgically implanted in the back of eye. Each chip's surface is covered with 5,000 microphotodiodes that react to light, sending electric signals along the eye's optic nerve to the brain. The article makes clear that the implants don't allow the cats to see — what they get is impulses of light. The hope is that the electrical activity in the optic nerve will encourage new retinal cells to grow. The article notes: "The chips, which provide their own energy, have shown encouraging results in clinical human trials, in some cases improving sight in people with retinitis pigmentosa or at least slowing the disease's development. Narfstrom said chips have been implanted in 30 people."
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Implants for healthy people (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope there is a 'turn-off-and-see-through' option that lets you use the original organic hardware when you want.
It works even better if it is implanted in an infant, so that the brain can adapt to it as it grows. This will, of course, be considered child abuse when it is first done. In a century or two it will be considered abuse NOT to have it done for your kid.
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Actually, I hope implants aren't the only way. Just give me the wearable version. Our brains are highly evolved to make use of our eyes, so I doubt there's much to be gained by cutting open healthy people for direct access to nerves.
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Only if it looks like a banana clip [answers.com]!
Re:Implants for healthy people (Score:5, Insightful)
There's too much we don't know aobut infant vision to mess with the brains early development - although who knows what stuff like television is already doing to us. However, I think it would be better to have these for overlays and such - where it mixes both the incoming light and anything being fed in from the connection. SVGA seems a little low resolution wise - don't forget this is your whole field of vision. You'd want probably 4-5 times that at least to resolve floating screens and such in front of you.
Don't forget to add those aural implants for Dolby 600 channel sound!
Parent
Re:Implants for healthy people (Score:4, Interesting)
An interesting tidbit on this topic: Scientists have done experiments in cats where they've blocked all incoming light to the cat's eyes during early kittenhood. A portion of the visual cortex does not organize properly without this input, causing the cats to have permanent non-functional vision. A similar effect is seen in human children who are born with cataracts or develop them very shortly after birth.
(Hubel and Wiesel received part of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for this work done through the 1960s and 70s.)
Parent
More experiments on kittens (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:More experiments on kittens (Score:4, Funny)
Cool! Next time I have kittens I know what I'm going to do....(evil laugh) heeeere kitty kitty kitty
Parent
Re:More experiments on kittens (Score:4, Interesting)
I had heard that the kittens could indeed not see vertical lines (or horizontal, depending on the environment in which they were raised) but that as soon as they were put in normal situations they learned to compensate almost instantly by tilting their heads. The way I heard it, if you put kittens raised without horizontal input and tested them, they couldn't see horizontal lines but that if you put them in a normal environment with a bunch of normal kittens, you couldn't tell the difference because the ones with the vision impairment were compensating.
I never did see the study, and have no background in vision research, so I couldn't tell you which version is true, but I'd be willing to guess that the kittens learned to compensate by tilting their heads. It just seems unlikely they wouldn't learn how to compensate.
Trillian
PS - sorry for using the word 'compensate' so much. I guess I'm compensating for something.
Parent
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2 cents,
QueenB.
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The optic nerve is actually a lot lower bandwidth than you would expect it to be; it has nothing like the capacity to send the amount of visual data you think you see. One of the biggest tricks your eye does is something a lot like run length encoding. It sends differences in light levels between adjacent cones,
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Re:Implants for healthy people (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Re:Implants for healthy people (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, the possibilities for mischief with such an implant are also endless. These things would be in high demand for poker games and high school locker rooms and about a billion other things that criminals and perverts will think up.
Parent
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Interesting (Score:4, Funny)
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Bonus? More like curse. (Score:2)
Not when the MPAA finds out about it. Then they'll either force you to watch commercials or else send you C&D letters to make you stop seeing. Remember, bionic eyes clearly induce people to use them for watching copyright-violated material.
Canadians, who are a little smarter, will just assume that everyone's bionic eyes are used to watch infringing material and will charge a tax on bionic eye hardware and pay the industry a cut.
If we'r
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Trusted Sight (TM).
I am looking forward to this (Score:4, Insightful)
Procedure shown on Apple Ad (Score:2, Funny)
Review (Score:3, Funny)
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It has to be wireless for now, because having a port embedded in the skin isn't currently practical. However "they" have discovered that deer's antlers get tied into the skin because they have a highly convoluted surface, with a lot of area, and for some reason the skin is able to attach to this. This is the technology we need to perfect to have ports in the skin.
In t
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You could get that right now if you wanted. Haven't you seen the scalp implants that let people mount metal spikes on their heads? Sort of a stainless-steel mohawk?
IMO it's not worth the trouble though. If the stud gets snagged on something when you're falling or moving fast for some other reason, you're going to do some serious damage to yourself.
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I'd prefer a fuel cell that runs off of the glucose and oxygen already present in the bloodstream...
=Smidge=
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Whoa, so the matrix is real?
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I believe Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" had a guy whose vision had been hacked by nanorobots to deliver a small add banner at the periphery of his vision.
I think, given the choice, wireless is OK for this stage. Wireless invaders will only attack if they're within signal range and they have the motivation. Microorganisms will invade regardless. Any type of surgery or major laceration puts you at risk for infection, and if you have wires running into your head then you have a canal for germs to get t
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If the eye is already defunct, why not remove the eye and implant the camera? It could probably be incorperated into an artifical eye with out much problem. Circuits and cameras are already tiny and the power requirements can't be very high. (nerves deal in microvolts?) A wearable inductive recharger and you are good to go. Reattach the muscle and you could even look around. I can understand the external camera for the earl
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I imagine an external came
One step closer (Score:2, Funny)
Now if only the eye could make the cool bionic sound.
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Ads via wireless? (Score:2)
Reminds me of a Neal Stephenson book, where some tiny, minor character killed himself since he got infected with some ad that played in his vision 24/7. It might have been about Korean roach motel, but it's been too long since I've read it.
What could possibly go wrong :) (Score:2)
What could possibly go wrong
Nice glasses (Score:2, Insightful)
http://www.newscientisttech.com/data/images/ns/cms
http://www.newscientisttech.com/data/images/ns/cms
By the looks of things the signals going to be pretty small so I don't imagine it
would send much interference. But it might recieve a buch though if it has to be ulra
sensitive though. Oh well it's not like you need more than 30-40fps.
On the other hand what if you woke up, switched on your recie
department (Score:2)
Primitive (Score:2)
This Should Be Free (Score:2)
I think for younger people (who have lost sight due to some premature condition or tragedy), this should be Government funded. I would respect a country's government who gave sight to it's citizens. No one should be blind.
Can it shed a tear? (Score:2)
Cadmium sulfide (Score:4, Interesting)
Once this thing gets working well, use cadmium sulfide [wikipedia.org] in the receptors and you'd be able to see in a wider visual band than normal eyes. Infrared and ultraviolet would become "visible". You would see heat signatures in the dark, and have nightvision among other [wikipedia.org] things. [wikipedia.org]
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I am sure you can get some even if you wore La Forge Goggles.
Babylon 5 (Score:2)
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Re:a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer's pock (Score:2)
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Probably in the same way that the brain handles everything else. Horribly to begin with, headaches, vertigo, vomiting. And a couple months later, you'll hardly notice it.
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It wouldn't be to hard to copyright the video stream either. You just got a letter from the MPAA asking for $3000 because you took your bionic eye to the movies and illegaly copied one of their films...
Depends... (Score:2)