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If we could ignore for a moment the trolls and knuckle draggers who must comment on Susan Rempe's appearance, this advance will be important to those of us who are losing eyesight to RP or AMD.

Most of the current clinical trials for artificial retinas (http://www.optobionics.com/ excluded) rely on some sort of external component partially due to the lack of a sufficiently small, dense, permanent, biocompatible power source. This then requires some sort of link to the retinal surface, either via micro-lasers or implanted ultra-thin wires. As much as enjoy watching ST:TNG, I for one would happily trade the Geordi LaForge look for a strictly internal prosthetic.

This is actually more like using an existing arm rather than learning to use a tool. We all had to go through a process of learning to use our own arms when we were babies. Our neurons carry the signals from our brains to our muscles and the muscles react according to the signal. We unconsciously figured out during our infancy what signals made our muscles do particular movements. In this case, the neurons interface with tiny electrodes that pick up the signals and a computer translates them into instructions for the robotic arm. Over time, the monkeys observe the effect of their "thoughts" on the movement of the arm and unconsciously learn to control the arm as if it were one of their own. There's also some very interesting related research going on with the goal of accomplishing the same thing with eyes.

Forget cameras, check out Optobionics. The whole thing is in the eye.

My other sig went home.

Optobionics has been around for a while and have been implanting silicon chips on the back of the eye on human patients. The patients were blinded by retinitis pigmentosa.

The chip interfaces directly with the the remaining cells in the retina so there's no need for external glasses or receivers. Although the person with the implant cannot perceive color, the resolution is good enough to distinguish shapes. The chip itself is has an array of photodiodes with a technology similar to solar cells.

Links to stories on the same subject are here

Sure, you can "copy" it by hand, but then it's just your word against theirs.

:-)

Note for the humor impaired: Yes, I'm kidding. At least I hope I am.

Eventually, if we can refine the techniques enough, it might get to the point where the resolution could be nearly as good as the human eye. Plus, since we are dealing with something digital, we could allow for the modification of the image based upon active filtering.

Being as good as the human eye may not be strictly necessary. Your vision system is pretty sophisticated and if you have (for example) solder burns on the surface of your eye, it will wander independently of the other to get the information that would otherwise be obscured by the burn.

Also, it doesn't sound like this is digital technology at all; It sounds more like they're using small, hyperefficient photovoltaic cells directly attached to electrodes which get stuffed into the existing (damaged) retina; It's basically a synthetic analogue for the analog retina. Backing this up is something I found on Optobionics' website which states "The area of the retina that receives and processes the detailed images--and then sends them via the optic nerve to the brain--is referred to as the macula. The macula is of significant importance in that this area provides the highest resolution for the images we see. The macula is comprised of multiple layers of cells which process the initial "analog" light energy entering the eye into "digital" electro-chemical impulses." The site says that the ASR is made up of an array of "microphotodiodes".

This page is a primer on photodiode technology.

In other words - I was right. Yay!

Here's the original press release:
http://www.uic.edu /depts/paff/opa/releases/retinas_advisory.html

And the company mentioned in the PR, Optiobionics, has a FAQ (which addresses questions of resolution and perception quality for potential patients... in short, they're not sure yet, but it won't be all that great) here.

Here's the original press release:
http://www.uic.edu /depts/paff/opa/releases/retinas_advisory.html

And the company mentioned in the PR, Optiobionics, has a FAQ (which addresses questions of resolution and perception quality for potential patients... in short, they're not sure yet, but it won't be all that great) here.