Japanese Scientists Create Artificial Eyeballs

MikeyMars writes: "CNN is reporting that Japanese scientists have grown artificial eyeballs [cnn.com] for tadpoles. This is the first time in the world something like this has been accomplished. 'Since the basics of body-making is common to that of human beings, I think this might help enable people to regain vision in the future,' Asashima was quoted as saying."

Comments

WIll this work on turtles?

[Unknown Poltroon]

I've got a one eyed turtle they can use as a test subject. (No, I'm not making some obscene joke, I got me a handicapped reptile!!! Really!!)

Re:WIll this work on turtles?

[Real_Mce]

that was funny dude you shouldn't have got modded a troll

BBC Also have this story

[Celt]

The BBC are also carrying this story @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1 743000/1743987.stm

Re:BBC Also have this story

[Celt]

be handy if I made a link for that now, wouldn't it link here

Now eat it

[Papa Legba]

Got to wonder how long until this ingredient makes it to Iron Chef....

Haha

[Temjin]

Cool, now I can finally have eyes in the back of my head.

"I can see you!"

Growing an Eyeball.....

[Phosphor3k]

Is vastly different from transplanting it succesfully and getting the transplantee's vision adjusted and working correctly.

Re:Growing an Eyeball.....

[PopeAlien]

Yes, but if they get this working can you imagine the great advantage it would give us? Why just the time saved alone would be astounding. Have you ever tried to put a pair of glasses or contact lenses on a tadpole or full grown frog? Its not easy.

Re:Growing an Eyeball.....

[bloggins02]

Did you perhaps not read the article? It explicitly says that the eyeball successfuly connected to the optic nerve and showed no signs of rejection.

You are correct on one thing though: How do we know it actually works as it "should"? I guess we'll have to wait until we can do this in a human subject an (s)he can tell us :)

Re:Growing an Eyeball.....

[Anonymous Coward]

So what? The eyeball was removed from the tadpole BEFORE it was hatched. Try doing the same thing with an adult who already has matured neural connections to the brain.

Re:Growing an Eyeball.....

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. This is the same problem that might occur with grown organs. The organ itself might connect correctly, but biological function is a fickle thing. Even the slightest deformity from a petri-dish growing could alter the way that the structure works, rendering it usless.

fake eyeballs

[Two Eyes of Greg]

i think these artificial eyeballs might be misused. the concept is great -- everyone can now have the ability to see -- but what would stop them from changing the spectrum of vision? perhaps adding uv or infrared to the normal visible light... and then you'd need the ability to focus... slightly modified it would let you zoom in on stuff, i think these glass eyes would be perfect spy tools...

Re:fake eyeballs

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps you should stuck your tin-foil cap on again..

Re:fake eyeballs

[Anonymous Coward]

As with every new invention, we're all doomed. Get over it and go get laid.

Re:fake eyeballs

[Docrates]

I think you misunderstand this technology

It's not like they designed eyeballs from scratch. They took undiferentiated cells, which already had the information on how to become regular eyeballs, and then made them grow in that direction. Going from this to actually changing the ways those eyes work would be like engineering eyeballs from scratch. We're not even close to having the information or technology required to get there. Sure we know how eyes work, but changing genes to make them produce different results is NOT where we are right now.

Besides, if we had the ability to do this, I wouldn't consider it a misuse, although I can see why a lot of people would. Besides, all of the applications you mention are already available, cheap and common through different gadgets

Re:fake eyeballs

[sam_handelman]

what would stop
them from changing the spectrum of vision? perhaps adding uv or infrared to the normal visible light

Firstly, such an eye would have very few advantages on a microcamera - in terms of ease of use, it would be much simpler to hide tiny cameras in artificial cavities in someone's body than to do what you're proposing. Furthermore, the nervous system requirements to process the additional information simply are not there (infrared = red and your superspy can't see normal colors? Ooh, sign me up today.)

In order to do what you're proposing, you'd need to take a human eye and genetically modify it so that it could safely detect either infra-red or UV light, problems with that proposal include -

1) The human eye works by converting photons in the visible range into electrical potentials, which then produce nerve impulses. Photons are converted into electrical potentials by chromphores (big, organic molecules with many double bonds.) These chromophores can allready detect UV, but when they do they're destroyed. There's a membrane in the eye that exists purely to screen UV out. So, if you want to be able to see UV, you have to modify all the receptors that are allready in there to resist UV.

2) Genetic modification of these chromophores is exceedingly difficult, since they are not coded for by genes in and of themselves (they are produced by a host of other proteins.) So, you'd need to replace the dozen or so proteins that make a chromophore (in a particular cell, at a particular time) with a dozen or so genes/proteins that make some UV (or IR) sensitive chromophore. Then, you'd need (somehow) to alter all of the proteins that recognised the old chromophore so that they recognise the new chromophore, instead, so that it is properly inserted into the cellular architecture. This sort of technology is, optimistically, a century away, and has many more sinister potential uses than making an organic wide-spectrum camera.

3) It is extremely difficult, using only organic molecules, to distinguish between IR and physical heat. Unlike infrared light, which makes bonds bounce back and forth more quickly (= heat), or ultraviolet light, which cleaves bonds (in addition), visible light has the property of raising the electric potential of "pi" electrons; electrons which participate in a double bond but which are not strictly required for the bond to exist. Note that by this definition "visible" light does extend a little farther in each direction than what we can actually see.

After you've finished your epic feat of genetic and chemical engineering, you need to take your modified cells and insert them into embryos who have had there eyes removed and see if the modified cells still grow into eyeballs. I envy your budget.

Re:fake eyeballs

[Chasuk]

I think these prosthetic arms might be misused. The concept is great -- everyone can now have the ability to wave and and pick up litter and stuff -- but what would stop them from including built-in razors and anthrax infected needles? Perhaps adding a toothbrush adaptor or squirt gun extension... and then you would need the abiity to aim... slightly modified it would let you shoot acid at people, I think these plastic arms would be perfect weapons...

For those incapable of recognizing sarcasm, I will give you a clue by indicating that the above paragraph was NOT flamebait or troll, but merely expressing my frustration that anyone could be so fucking stupid as to moderate the parent post as "Insightful."

Re:fake eyeballs

[bn557]

It would be IR that you would want. IR is the wavelength of light that MOST matter produces at around 293K(280-300). This means that at normal room temperature, pretty much everything is emiting these nice photons. There wouldn't be any problem with distinguishing these from heat. In fact, a body(or any item for that matter) that is at around 280-300K is MORE responsive to a photon with a wavelength in the infrared range(isn't that like 600nm?... been a while since I've worked with such short wavelengths) You wouldn't have to worry about the UV because the only real abundant sources of UV on Earth are Lights.

I do, however agree that modifying our genetic makeup to do this would be dificult at best, impossible at worst.

Pat

Re:fake eyeballs

[dragons_flight]

I think you're being unduly pessimistic as to the feasibility of constructing IR sensitive eyes.

IIRC, there are a number of animals (some snakes come to mind), that already have a sensitivity to infrared. In which case, it's less a matter of having to design from scratch and more an issue of figuring out how nature does it. Hell, maybe we'll just invent a way to successfully graft snake heat receptors. A daunting task, but not so unapproachable.

Of course whether or not it would ever be useful is still questionably, especially if one has to given up some portion of the normal spectrum in exchange.

Re:fake eyeballs

[spectral]

would it be possible to take the cells from a different gender of person to use to grow the eyeballs? the article doesn't say that the undifferentiated cells came from the tadpole they used (and in fact seems to indicate that they didn't). Could we thus grow a tetrachromat eyeball, if we had an undifferentiated cell from a tetrachromat? (more info on tetrachromat's here..

From the previous slashdot article on tetrachromats, it appears that it's because of the eye construction that they can see, but maybe you need to be born with it for the nervous system to be able to handle the information? it might be an interesting experiment at least..

Re:fake eyeballs

[vrmlknight]

You could probably grow the eye but the wiring is not their in some one you would need 4 data streams to the brain the normal person is hardwired at birth for 3 so unless you want to run cabling from the optic nerve to the brain and make sure you don't cross any wires it would be possible, but than you would have to be trained to use it since you have been using 3 colored vision you entire life who's to say your brain isn't stubborn and decides to ignore the extra color

Re:fake eyeballs

[vrmlknight]

the problem is that they would not be able to see colors they would see like a snake and that would lead to a social outcast (not knowing what color you clothes are socks that mismatch ties that pokadotted) it wouldn't be fair to a child to do that to and we don't have any where near the technology to take out a perfectly normal adults eye and put in a modified eye with out a lot of rejection not to mention connecting the optic nerve back to the eye.

Re:fake eyeballs

[Raving]

I agree with you on the "not from scratch" part ; but note that I'm being told that the only approching tool biologists have nowadays is taking cells and putting them in an specially iradiated enucleated egg, which grows a full organism.

The problem I have with this article (hum, or this fifteen lines summary, should I say) is that they leap directly from "we took undifferentiated cells" to "we implanted the new eyeball in the toadpole".

So, if they've been able to grow a single organ and not a total organism, that's already very interesting, even if it's not "from scratch" (which is a totally different, and much more complicated problem).

Olivier

our basics of body making similar to tadpoles?

[LM741N]

1. Frogs put eggs in water
2. Eggs hatch into tadpoles
3. Tadpoles turn into frogs which spend time on land and in water

So again, how is that "body making" similar to humans?

Re:our basics of body making similar to tadpoles?

[bloggins02]

Someone needs a biochemisty and cellular biology lesson. The "body building" process referred to is the biological method of cells multiplying and differentiating to create biological structures, and is essentially the same process among all complex multicellular life forms. This post should have been moderated Score: -1, Moron

Re:our basics of body making similar to tadpoles?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, who knows what goes on in Japan. Maybe all that tentacle porn is more accurate than we realize.

Tadpole Haiku

[Tide]

Thought I'd try my hand

Remove tadpole eye
Try not to drop new one
Tadpole sees perfect

Re:Tadpole Haiku

[3141]

Good try. Traditional Haiku, though, is of the form:

5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables

Of course, tradtional Haiku is also in Japanese, applied to the seasons, whatever. Personally I don't mind as long as it sounds good.

tyrell & green to drop 'green'

[Anonymous Coward]

he say you blade runner / tell him i'm eating

"i just do eyes"

Re:tyrell & green to drop 'green'

[extra88]

Beat me to it.

"I just do eyes, just eyes."

Re:tyrell & green to drop 'green'

[Archie Steel]

Anybody knows if the japanese eye shop is in the original novel? That would be one more indication that Philip K. Dick truly is God.

Re:tyrell & green to drop 'green'

[H310iSe]

"If you could see what I've seen with your eyes..."

(response - "c-c-c-c-cold..."

Re:tyrell & green to drop 'green'

[Spamlent Green]

Highly doubtful. The novel and the movie have almost nothing to do with each other, aside from vague themes and character names. Don't get me wrong, they're both great, but if one didn't already know the movie was based on the book, you'd have no idea they were related.

Ah!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, one step closer to Blade Runner!

Oh great...

[11thangel]

Now my mom really CAN have eyes in the back of her head...

Re:Oh great...

[Anonymous Coward]

this isnt funny to any extent. like, i cant even groan at it. it shouldnt even be at -1, but rather just where you left it. no one should touch it with a ten foot pole.

Re:Oh great...

[Anonymous Coward]

You always have been quite the wanker from CT, haven't you?

---
From your friends at Virus Pete Industries

Re:Oh great...

[Zog]

You mean yours doesn't?

Crazy newfangled moms....

Re:Oh great...

[Anonymous Coward]

VP, go back to the trailer park you crawled out of.

--defcon7

Re:Oh great...

[Anonymous Coward]

defcon7, go back to the... oh forget it!

--N1k1tA

Mon Dieu!

[gila_monster]

How DARE you suggest that anyone on Iron Chef would use ARTIFICIAL ingredients! Philistine!

Chew's Eye Shop.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's here already.

Now if the process required sub zero temperatures, I'd be really wigged out.

name that movie (easy)

[LMCBoy]

"Your eyes...I designed your eyes"

"If only you could see...what I've seen with your eyes."

Re:name that movie (easy)

[xonker]

One of the best scenes in Blade Runner, right next to the final scene with Deckard and Roy Batty. (Or should I say final scene for Roy Batty...)

You tadpole, huh?

[verch]

I design your eyes.

If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes

Problem Solved?

[DeadBugs]

Wow, I had no idea that eye sight loss in tadpoles had gotten so bad that Sceintists in Japan dedicated time to finding a solution. Although the three blind mice have already filed a discrimination lawsuit seeking matching funds.

Re:Problem Solved?

[Kryptonomic]

Perhaps the luddites like the ones who want to prohibit experiments with stem cells and embryos that consist mostly of unspecified cells based on silly Bible-thumping arguments are the reason for this?

"I just do eyes"

[Anonymous Coward]

First thought was the scene in Bladerunner when Dekker visits LA Eyeworks.

I guess,

[ImaLamer]

we won't need these!

Re:I guess,

[torqer]

That's great for tadpoles. Human still might need them (bionic eyes).

Finally

[cliffiecee]

"After all the years of eye damage from CRT radiation I have a chance to see again :) This will sell well with all the hardcore hackers :)"

-- Xenph, "Bionic Eyes" Jan. 2002

Considering the source...

[Macsimus]

"Japanese Scientists Create Artificial Eyeballs"

... does this mean their tadpoles now have Lum's doe-like eyes, in true anime style? :-)

What's next?

[ai0524]

From a film made more than 20 years ago:

INT. COLD STORAGE ROOM NIGHT

Except for the work table with its sharp gleaming instruments, the room is as barren and sterile as a morgue. The glass-doored apartments in the walls look like crypts. Some of them small as post office boxes. From one of the Chew removes a vacuum, packed box. Carefully separating the seal, he reaches into the purple jell and with a pair of tweezers extracts an eye.

Through the jeweler's glass, which he has not bothered to remove, Chew holds the eye up to the light and studies it a moment. His other hand searches through his pockets.

...

CHEW: I know you. I made your eyes. You are nexus - 6.
ROY: If only you could see what I have seen with your eyes.

The entire original script may be found at http://www.nootrope.net/bladerunner.html

Re:What's next?

[Anonymous Coward]

The original story can be found in used bookstores:
"Do androids dream of electric sheep."

Re:What's next?

[ThePixel]

Glad I wasn't the only one to think of Bladerunner!

Great step

[Henry V .009]

They actually managed to restore the sight of a tadpole which had had its eye surgically removed. The new eye reacted to light a week later. The tadpole was later disected, and the researchers confirmed that the optic nerve had reattached itself.

I am sceptical of this working for more developmentally mature organisms, especially in adult mammals, however. The nerve reattachment is tricky, and there is other stuff besides. Nerve cells need to be trained early in development. There have been experiments on kittens, where one eye is sown shut after birth, and then allowed to open normally several weeks later. The kittens are always blind in that eye. Even if a human adult had sight in childhood, and lost his eyes later, I wonder if the nerve cells could be retrained for newly grown eyes.

Re:Great step

[the_quark]

The issue with the kittens is that the parts of their brain that would be used for that eye get taken up by other functions. Research seems to show that, if you had eyesight during that critical learning phase, and then lost it later, the brain function is still there and you should be able to recover your sight.

As well, even if it were only useful in immature organisms, it could be marvelous for kids who are born blind at birth (obviously in cases where there is simple physical eye damage). Further, my brother has Retinitis Pigmentosa, which is a progressive eye disease where he loses his peripheral vision. He still has fine eyesight in the little field he has; he can read, but is very likely to trip over large objects because he can't see them in his peripheral vision. As he likes to say, "I'll see the penny on the other side of the room; I'll just trip over an elephant I didn't see on the way there." As I understand it, his problem is entirely in his eyeballs; if you could replace them, it would completely solve his problem (until RP showed up in them again 30 years from now, assuming that the cause isn't local to the eyeball).

I do have concerns as well that the eye would be able to hook up. But I think a good analogy might be the cochlear implants for deaf people. They hook up in adults, but the inputs are so different from the natural ones that most adults never learn to integrate the information. However, with a grown eyeball, that shouldn't be a problem - the information should be very similar to what they used to receive.

Still exciting stuff, if only from a biohacking standpoint...

Re:Great step

[BluBrick]

I am sceptical of this working for more developmentally mature organisms, especially in adult mammals, however. The nerve reattachment is tricky, and there is other stuff besides. Nerve cells need to be trained early in development.

Actually, I suspect that if they can get around the nerve reattachment problem, retraining the optic nerve and its related brain centres might not be too difficult.

The brain would probably correlate the signals from the new eye with the signals from the remaining natural eye, and begin to train itself that way. Perhaps even restoring true binocular vision. But only in a few rather limited circumstances.

Having no existing signal to provide such correlation would exclude people totally blind in both eyes.

If sight in both eyes had already begun failing do to a degenerative condition, the new eye would have a degraded signal to correlate against, and would quite possibly retrain to the same degraded standard.

It seems that this would be most useful in cases where a degenerative condition had been diagnosed prior to symptoms becoming too severe. Presumably, the new eye would not suffer from the same degenerative condition, and even though it is retrained to a degraded standard, would not degrade further.

And no, IANAN (neurologist).

Re:Great step

[macshit]

The issue with the kittens is that the parts of their brain that would be used for that eye get taken up by other functions.

I was born with improper muscular control over one eye, which meant that I never developed binocular vision. The problem was detected when I was still a very young infant, but the doctor said that it was too late -- they could fix the muscle problem, but the period during which my brain would be able to develop the necessary associated brain-bits (sorry for the technical term) was over.

Sucks, really.

Re:Great step

[Transcendent]

The tadpole was later disected, and the researchers confirmed that the optic nerve had reattached itself.

Don't forget about them frying it up and serving it in a French restaurant afterward too....

Re:Great step

[limber]

Oliver Sacks' "An Anthropologist on Mars" contains a (somewhat sad) case study of a patient who had been essentially blind since early childhood, and who had been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa.

As it turns out the patient really just had severe cataracts, which were then surgically removed. Bingo, the guy could 'see'!

But he had enormous problems adapting to the new inputs his brain was receiving. He wasn't able to interpret depth very well; moving objects terrified him because he couldn't tell how far away they were. In his life he had adapted completely to being blind, and the operation turned out to be something of a mixed blessing.

Here's an excerpt.

As a side note, the book also contains the fascinating story of Temple Grandin, the autistic professor who has huge difficulties with human social interactions but who has made a career out of designing super efficient slaughtering houses that don't panic animals during the process leading up to their deaths.

Re:Great step

[fishbowl]

>The nerve reattachment is tricky...

That's the understatement of the century.
If you can reattach nerves, you can do much
more than "just" cure blindness.

You'll be able to cure almost all paralysis,
probably brain damage, and even, yes, cure Death,
at least some forms of brain-death.

Re:Great step

[the_quark]

Yes, my same brother who has RP also had "lazy eye" (as they termed it in the early 70s). He had surgery to correct it, but it was too late for him to develop true binocular vision (which I now understand needs to happen in the first six-nine months). After that, as you said, the portion of the brain needed to process binocular vision and associate it into your worldview is already taken up by something else.

However, it has led to a weird confluence with his RP - as I decribed earlier, RP causes his vision in each eye to reduce to a pinpoint. Since his brain never really wired up for binocular vision, he doesn't really have the strong lock keeping his eyes looking the same way. As a result - completely unconsciously - his brain is turning one of his eyes OUT. This effectively doubles his field of vision, at no real loss to him (since he can't see depth-of-field anyway). Isn't the brain an amazing thing?

Re:Great step

[the_quark]

In an odd coincidence, I've just discovered Sacks and am reading Awakinings, right now. I previously read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which alludes to the cataract story. An Anthropologist on Mars is on my wishlist. As I recall, the patient you describe ended up spending a lot of time sitting in the dark to get away from the endless visual "noise" that he perceived.

Temple Grandin is a very interesting woman, and I keep running across her. I'll much look forward to hearing a complete history of hers; in the past I've only run across her in the types of thumbnail descriptions you used.

Re:Great step

[Thorgal]

Then check out this book by her: "Thinking in Pictures : And Other Reports from My Life With Autism". It's available at Amazon.com.

Ears

[Apreche]

If you can cure blindness, then start working on growing ears. We can cure deafness too.

Re:Ears

[blitzrage]

The ear does not hear though (and they have grown ears on the backs of mice, although I do not have a link for this, just search Google [google.com]. It is actually what is inside the head that does the hearing.

Re:Ears

[demaria]

Groups are working on deafness too, it's not like everyone's doing eyes today. Rush Limbaugh has gone deaf and is trying a new surgery to regain his hearing.

We're chiefly visual creatures. I'd rather be deaf than blind. Much safer, plus you can drive.

Re:Ears

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be so sure. A deaf friend of mine said she would rather have been blind then deaf. When I asked her why, she said, "Blindness isolates you from the world of things. Deafness isolates you from the world of people."

Re:Ears

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe someday we'll be able to grow brains and cure conservatives.

Re:Ears

[mgv]

Groups are working on deafness too, it's not like everyone's doing eyes today. Rush Limbaugh has gone deaf and is trying a new surgery to regain his hearing.

There are many forms of deafness. It can be a conductive deafness - for example if the bones in your middle ear are broken or ossified. This is similar to but much worse than the way your hearing weakens if you don't pop your ears on a plane descent. This sort of deafness is easy to fix. Often amplifying the sound will help.

Then there is neural deafness, which can be in the cochlea (where the implants help) or directly in the acoustic nerve (such as when a tumour of the nerve - acoustic neuroma - has to be removed. It can also be developmental if you have never heard sounds, although in these people the brain seems to rewire the centres to other language such as signing.

These different forms of deafness will require different treatments.

The new eyeball described here wont help with certain forms blindness. Cortical blindness, due to a stroke of the brain centres processing vision, for example, isn't going to be helped by this.

Michael

Eye Yai Yai

[spongebob]

I guess the Eyes have it. :)

Sorry, couldn't stop the were-cheeser tranformation.... :)

This sounds like a huge step...

[joe nerd boy]

Eyes are complex organs.

Even though they are only growing tadpole eyse, its still a huge medical step!

When the day comes that we can grow new eyes (Livers, Hearts, Lungs, etc...) for humans, you can kiss alot of today's medical problems good-bye. Heart Disease, Kidney failure, Cancer, Transplant rejection -If grown from your own tissue.

All the smokers out there won't really have an excuse to quit anymore.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

Re:This sounds like a huge step...

[vrmlknight]

"When the day comes that we can grow new eyes (Livers, Hearts, Lungs, etc...) for humans, you can kiss alot of today's medical problems good-bye"

The problems would still be their we would just be able to give people a replacement. This seems at first like a great thing but what is to stop some one from getting an overhaul every 30 -40 years replace every organ in their body (we've all seen the sci-fi movie where the bad guy takes organs from people he has killed to keep him self alive) but is living forever... or at least until the brain wears out a good thing? Heck why stop their if we could just use some advanced MRI scanner you could image the brain and load it in a computer and interface the computer to the body (or robotic body) and live forever but when in all that mess do i stop being me once i have replaced all my body parts and have an electronic brain (that could be copied for backup incase anything happens to me) is it still me? And what if I copy myself are both of them me? They would think so... I would just point out that starting to replacing bodily organs can/will open up a whole new source of problems

Re:This sounds like a huge step...

[ErikZ]

"...but is living forever... or at least until the brain wears out a good thing?"

I dunno. Lets find out.

What's up with today?

[metlin]

Seems to be a very eye-ventful day, isn't it? :-)

you old geezer

[Anonymous Coward]

you don't get the joke because you are probably older than like 14 or something. looser.

Stephen King, author, dead at 55

[Anonymous Coward]

I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

The things I have seen...

[BitwizeGHC]

Ohhh, if only you knew the things I have seen... with your eyes.

(Sorry, it just had to be said.)

Re:The things I have seen...

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn!

You are one redundant bastard!

And a fuckwit, too, btw...

Re:The things I have seen...

[Anonymous Coward]

That kind of behavior only merits one response:

HURR!!!

Stem Cell Restrictions in the Land of Bushy

[guygee]

Yet another reason to oppose the Bush Administration's idiotic policies restricting stem cell research. It looks like the sight-impaired in this country can look forward to having new eyes with little "Made in Japan" labels.

Re:Stem Cell Restrictions in the Land of Bushy

[dat00ket]

It looks like the sight-impaired in this country can look forward to having new eyes with little "Made in Japan" labels.

As long as they don't add those little watermark bugs in the lower right corner I don't think people would mind so much.

You think that NBC logo is annoying now, wait til you have to see it every second of every day.

Re:Stem Cell Restrictions in the Land of Bushy

[gewalker]

I don't remember any policies of the current administration that restrict research using tadpole stem cells.

There is one important distinction between what you imply and the truth With respect to human stem cells research. There is not a restriction on embryonic stem cell research, just a policy not to fund using federal dollars. Since there is not a shortage of biotech research funds in this area, there is not much of an issue in reality.

Re:Stem Cell Restrictions in the Land of Bushy

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't remember any policies of the current administration that restrict research using tadpole stem cells."

Are you implying that the object of this research is to help all of the poor, blind tadpoles?

"Since there is not a shortage of biotech research funds in this area, there is not much of an issue in reality."

Thank goodness for all of the biotech firms willing to work on this problem, we wouldn't want the research performed by Universities and the results released to the public, now would we? Besides, all of that open knowledge causes dangerous scientific progress that threatens the "beneficent oligopoly", can't have that either.

Fish heads, fish heads

[whovian]

Mmmm.....see me sushimi!

Are they slanty?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Choices, Choices

[Ankou]

Okay so the question becomes which eyes would you rather have? You could go with artificial eyeballs (Artificial Eyeballs) or upgrade to Bionic eyes (see Bionic Eyes). My choice would go to the first one that gives me an X-ray vision option.

Re:Choices, Choices

[prentis]

Id go for the Bionic Eyes Space eyes just for the name
on a sidenote Im going to kill myself if I see another bladerunner-I-made-made-your-eyes reference/joke geez enuff is enuff.

I just do eyes

[JimFromJersey]

I don't know such stuff, I just do eyes, just genetic design, just eyes. You Nexus, huh, I design your eyes

Re:I just do eyes

[Anonymous Coward]

congratulations, you waste of sperm and egg!

you were the VERY FIRST ONE to quote that!

it must tire you out being so very clever.

Companion: Artificial Eyelids

[Digitalia]

Now that they've found a way of reproducing eyeballs, I suggest they begin work on artificial eyelids. Of course, why replicate nature's work exactly when we can always improve upon it considerably. Think if you could embed a layer light-emitting polymer within the flesh of the eyelid. Close your eyes, instant total recall as your portable computer displays the material inside your lids. Give the eyelids a feed from an infrared or UV camera, or simply one with zoom, and you suddenly have a rather innocuous system of super-vision. I'd pay for it so long as the lids looked natural. Miniatiurize electronics enough and this might be much easier than redesigning eyeballs from scratch to achieve this kind of goal.

There are problems beyond the tech, of course. First, I imagine that one might suffer nausea after prolonged use. Second, what would happen when millions of drivers began watching television on their eyelids while driving down the highway, squinting or holding one eye open so they can catch CNN?

Re:Companion: Artificial Eyelids

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to mention what happens when 1337 h4x0r 0wnz j00!

Re:Companion: Artificial Eyelids

[Corrado]

Man, that just creaps me out! :/

Re:Companion: Artificial Eyelids

[sheetsda]

I think you'd have trouble concealing the on/off switch, channel changer, etc. and making it look natural and if it didn't those things you can say goodbye to sleep and sanity. Those cable and electric plugs, or batteries and antenna going into your head are bound to give you away eventually. Watching CNN isn't much good without hearing it aswell. IMO this sort of thing is a long way off. Hopefully by that time the human will have been taken out of the drivers seat of a car. It is a cool concept though, I'll be first in line when/if the chance arrises to become a cyborg, even if only very small ways.

No fun..

[sporty]

This takes all the fun out of "It's all fun and games until an eye gets taken out." I mean if you can get your eye replaced, it'll be fun to take an eye out too! (/joke)

horray

[Anonymous Coward]

Several years ago, disease took my eyesight from me. I tried killing myself several times, but people close to me always keep a close eye on me and stopped me. I learned to use braille and I get along OK, but no one will hire me. The cite lack of skills, but I know the real reason. At least this gives me some hope. Maybe i won't have to shoot myself afteral;l.

Do you know what its like not being able to see anything for years? I would give my legs to be able to see again.

More than four eyes...

[3seas]

And I thought "Four-Eyes" jokes were bad...

Prediction

[Popocatepetl]

Can't replace a complete brain at once without losing personality and accumulated knowledge/memories. So replace one piece of brain until completely new brain.

Would this help?

[Anonymous Coward]

People like me with something called achromatopsia, where the cones in the eye are pretty much completely gone and we have to rely on rod vision?

Eyball and bugs

[line-bundle]

Make lots of them to make all bugs (even in WIndows!) shallow?

American Trade Ambassador to Japanese Govt.

[ccolon]

"Morphology, longevity, incept dates."

"Don't know -- I, I don't know such stuff. I just do eyes. Just eyes -- Just genetic design -- just eyes!"

Blade Runner anyone?

[Dog and Pony]

Lab Worker: I don't know answers, I just do eyes. You Nexus, huh? I design your eyes.

Roy Batty: Chew, if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes.

Now

[sinserve]

A coat hanger mounted eyeball should be as good
as an x10 -- for security purposes that is.

And also....

[muchawi]

Eyes...I just do eyes...

Great, but... the Japanese?

[phillymjs]

Will they make these things the proper size, or will everyone who has them look like they just stepped out of anime?

~Philly

Wow. Two eye stories on the same day.

[Restil]

And amazingly enough, they're not repeats!

First time in world ???

[Anonymous Coward]

While it is technically correct to say that this is the first time in the world this has been done, that really doesn't make sence, as with this type of event, we do not judge it on the basis of geography. A more correct phrasing would have been "first time in history" or even "first time in the history"

Blade Runner baby!

[Dutchmaan]

Hmmm... I guess the title says it all..

Awesome

[mr100percent]

I'm blind in one eye, in 8 years the doctors promise me that there will be artificial eyesight. I've never been able to see in 3D, maybe I'll finally see the hidden picture in the "Magic Eye" a la Mallrats."When will I see the sailboat?"

You must walk...

[Anonymous Coward]

Before you can run, Grasshoper.

Wait, I've seen this before. . .

[GeorgieBoy]

Back in 1982. The movie was Bladerunner. Remember the Japanese scientist who worked for Tyrell?

"I only do eyes. . ."

Reminds me of Blade Runner

[ShieldWolf]

Where Rutger Hauer and his dumb partner go to visit the Chinese man that made their eyes in a lab. Then the dumb guy starts putting eyes on the scientists shoulder while Hauer interogates him - funny stuff. Now it's all too real ;)

And nearsighted?

[Crusty Oldman]

Me too.

seize the moment!

[smallblackdog]

Theres never been a better time to create a low-grade voyeuristic pr0n site! Gotta go get me some 'bawls.

Re:fake eyeballs (snakes seeing infrared)

[sam_handelman]

Sorry, I meant to say, it would be almost impossible to distinguish IR from ambient heat using a chromophore. Obviously, there are all sorts of organic materials that image IR just fine. My bad. I don't know how snakes do it but I don't think it involves generating an electric potential in a chromophore.

In any case, adding the "pits" that snakes use to sense heat to someone's eyes would be even more difficult.

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...

[Achilleas]

...?

Re:Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...

[Transcendent]

...what?!

Chu...

[Elgon]

...if only you could have seen what I have seen with your eyes.

Elgon

who needs god now we could just spawn one of

[usecrack]

our own, hahah i hope all those god freaks are going nuts.

eyesee

[Anonymous Coward]

Pure chiba baby.

Blade Runner..

[TrevorB]

I don't know answers, I just do eyes. You Nexus, huh? I design your eyes.

J.F. Sebastian. He's the one you want....

holy blade runner batman

[llamalicious]

someone, quick call Ridley... this has GOT to be the most references in a single /. article to Blade Runner (from an article not thus related)

yeah yeah, go ahead an mod me OT... it's ok, I'll see you coming with the new eyes I just got thru eBay... :)

Puts a new meaning to...

[irc(addict)]

.. Eyes in the back of your head.

Sorry. Couldnt Resist.

Default subject

[Legion303]

Japanese Scientists Create Artificial Eyeballs

I see. (*ba dum bum*)

Thank you, thank you, don't forget to tip the bartender.

-Legion

extra-spectrum vision

[zenyu]

Furthermore, the nervous system requirements to process the additional information simply are not there (infrared = red and your superspy can't see normal colors? Ooh, sign me up today.)

I agree with you're other points, but not this one. I've read reports of some women having extra green receptors. They don't have extra resolution in their retina, just two sets of green receptors sensitive at different frequencies. This may explain why color blindness is less prevalent in women, if they start out with two and lose one they still can see color about as well as a man.

If you managed to engineer new color receptors that weren't baked by UV and were sensitive from infrared to UV you could have the three RGB's and a UV and infrared. You would have a harder time finding the edge between a green and blue surface at the same brightness but it wouldn't be a handycap since we already have much lower color resolution than brightness res, just look at how JPEG and TV signals are encoded.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone out there that can already see well in UV and infrared, there isn't much of an advantage so it won't wipe out our simple RGB eyes in the gene pool. I only discovered I was more sensitive to IR than average because I was getting blinded by the bright IR LEDs that others would only admit to seeing in a dark room. Not much of an advantage in our modern world, and with no extra 'regular red' sensitivity I couldn't really distinguish it from a bright red (it is really red, prolly cuz it's completely undetected by the blue & green receptors.)

Still your other points hold, it's far off. If we can replace a blind newborn's eyes in 20 years with normal eyes that would be fantastic in and of itself.

I'd really love to have 1024 individual sensors for a in-eye spectroscope though. "Johny is that a diamond or cubic zirconia on Sally's finger?" or better yet, "Cmdr. Checkov is that planet M-Class?"

Re:extra-spectrum vision

[sam_handelman]

This may explain why color blindness is less prevalent in women, if they start out with
two and lose one they still can see color about as well as a man.

Color blindness is less prevalent in women because the gene that allows color perception is on the X chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes - in order for a woman to be color blind both copies of the gene must be "broken". Same story as hemophilia - the gene that causes blood to clot is on the X chromosome, so if a man gets a single broken copy from his Mom, he has the condition.

with no extra
'regular red' sensitivity I couldn't really distinguish it from a bright red (it is really red, prolly cuz it's
completely undetected by the blue & green receptors.)

Okay, the "near IR" that you can see is part of the spectrum that behaves as "visible" light but which our eyes (mostly) cannot detect. Detecting that light, and calling it red, doesn't do much to disturb your color vision, since, most of the time, that extra "color" shows up alongside regular red light and it doesn't do much.

Now, the deep infra-red, the kind that you need to be able to see to have "heat vision" doesn't have this property. You have cone receptors that see this particular color of light. Now, where in the nervous system are you going to attach them? My point is, there isn't a "fourth color" to attach them to - there is a great deal of complicated graymatter involved in vision processing and you can't just add a whole new set of inputs (well, we still don't know much about how it works but it certainly appears you can't.) Imagine, instead of seeing just R, B, G, R+B = V, R+G = O, and G+B = Y, we'd have to have six new secondary colors, hot Red, hot Blue, hot Green, hot Violet etc., as well as a new primary color (hot Black) and the brain just isn't equipped to cope with that.

You can wire them up just as if they were more red cones; so a hot newspaper looks pink. However, at that rate, the person would have a lot of trouble making any sense of what he or she saw.

Re:extra-spectrum vision

[zenyu]

You can wire them up just as if they were more red cones; so a hot newspaper looks pink. However, at that rate, the person would have a lot of trouble making any sense of what he or she saw.


But I think you could. They aren't impulse filters. If you wired up the near-IR sensors as red you would be able to distinguish "very red" IR from regular red. Frequencies that are red still have some green response, IR will have much
less if any green response. You could plant

nIR-R-O-G-Y-B-UV
\ | /\|/\ | /
R - G - B

Something IR or Red has only a red response
Orange has a Red & Green response, etc.

You could also do this

fIR-nIR-R-G-B-UV
\ / \|/ \|/
R - G - B

This might make you red-green colorblind, but maybe just less sensitive to the transition.

After a little combining in the eye you have basically the same inputs to the brain. I don't think this would be needed really, the brain learns to see, if it got a different set of initial inputs it would probably adjust. Just look at the color blind, most don't know they are until they take some test for it. I think the really hard stuff is making IR and UV receptors that work in a mammal.
I agree that we know very little about how the brain actually processes vision. The parts we do know like the edge detecting filters don't need color.

Re:extra-spectrum vision

[Winged Cat]

G+B=Cyan, not Yellow.

Re:extra-spectrum vision

[Dr. Mutex]

Trust me, you don't want to give up the ability to differentiate red and green. You find out you are color blind when people keep insisting that bricks and dogs are not green when (to you) they very plainly are. Extra-spectrum? I'd be delighted if somebody'd whip me up a custom-engineered virus to hack the sensors I've already got into working order.

Monty Python's comments:

[dreamsinter]

Much to his mum and dad's dismay

Horace ate himself one day

He didn't stop to say his grace

He just sat down and ate his face ...

..."Stop him, someone," Mother cried

"Those eyeballs would be better fried." ...

And then you wonder why you can't get no dates ...!?!

Local News

[big_hairy_mama]

This was on the local TV news here -- funny story. The newscaster said: "Japanese researchers have created artificial eyeballs for tadpoles... from the embryos of *frogs*!' As if she thought that tadpoles and frogs were separate species. TV newscastors never cease to amaze me...

TROLL!!? TROLL??

[Unknown Poltroon]

WTF is wrong with you stupid assed moderators? YEs, I mean you!!! THis was at least vaguely relevant, and i thought it was at least a little funny, and now becasue of you, my turtle my be condemmed to a life of monocular vision.

d00d

[shaldannon]

go back to #/. where you belong :}