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Artificial Retinas Bring Vision Back To The Blind

Posted by timothy on from the no-corneal-humor-please dept.

Patters writes "Researchers from the University of California and the Doheny Eye Institute have successfully implanted a tiny electronic eye implant with a video camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses into 6 patients, allowing them to detect light and motion. The implant is a 4-by-4 grid of electrodes which connects to damaged photoreceptors (rods and cones) on the patient's retina. It works by stimulating the photoreceptors, transmitting signals through the optic nerve to the brain. The implant only works on patients with degenerated rods and cones, and is named after Argus, the Greek god which had 100 eyes. If the implants continue to be a success, the artificial retinas could be available to the public within the next 3 years."

9 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious transhuman consequences left out by Eunuch · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Transhumanism is like libertarianism--an obvious solution invisible to the mainstream. Hey, I don't want blind spots. I consider them to make me disabled. And to fix that I want completely artificial eyes.

    --
    Transcend Humanity. Please.
    1. Re:Obvious transhuman consequences left out by MyLongNickName · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You'll need an artificial brain as well. Most of what you "see" is really brain processing. Simply increasing the resolution of the camera won't help. 360 vision sounds neat, but your brain won't be able to cope without making other concessions.

      Granted, being able to focus on something 200 yards away the size of a needle would be awesome. But don't think this is a panacea for everyone.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    2. Re:Obvious transhuman consequences left out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I think you'll find that if you modify your eyes to transmit information that your natural eyes did, your brain will not be able to process that additional information. You might get it to work if you implanted them in an infant, but that would be kind of rough having to buy new eyes frequently during periods of rapid growth.

      Artificial eyes that simply modify the incoming image might work (for example you could represent light outside of the visible spectrum by a distinctive color).

    3. Re:Obvious transhuman consequences left out by Valar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The funny thing about libertarians is that they are dismissed by both sides of the political spectrum.

      Libertarian: I think people ought to be able to do anything with their personal lives, just as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.
      Republican: OMG?! What if they smoke drugs and make gay-like?
      Libertarian: Companies are just lots of people. So they ought to be able to do just about anything that doesn't hurt anyone else.
      Democrat: OMG?! They'll enslave us all!!!!! (ignoring the important clause about do no evil)

      --

      ====
      Crudely Drawn Games
  2. remember everyone by UlfGabe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    people blind from birth will not be able to use this to see. Their brains havn't even developed the "code" to interpret the optic nerve signals.

    people who have lost eyes, or through macular degeneration, will be able to regain some of their lost visual freedom.

    excellent work scientists, keep it up.

    --
    Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
  3. Re:I am not impressed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    To me this is really low tech stuff.

    It is very rare to miss something you have, until you lose it. Of course they will most likely improve this to allow people to see better resolutions, but you have to start from somewhere. What was the resolution for your first monitor and what is it now?

  4. So? It's better than nothing...take hearing: by lxt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It really is better than nothing - take cochlear implants. Nobody who recieves an implant (which works) complains about the quality of the sound produced...and it really is far removed from what we hear (imagine everything sounding like it was being spoken by Daleks, and you'll get the picture).

    As with all technologies, you'd expect the resolution to improve over time - in the case of cochlear implants, sound quality has improved with increased numbers of electrodes being used in the cochlear, and the size of speech processors has been reduced to the point where they now look like typical hearing aids.

    However, I'd imagine surgery wise, although it can be extremely complicated to insert a cochlear implant (especially if the cochlear itself is deformed), it's a hell of a lot easier to upgrade / repair a damaged implant than it would be to upgrade / repair a retinal implant.

  5. Can you imagine being there... by Sivar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When someone who has been blind for their whole life sees for the first time, with a device that you and your team designed?

    THIS is the true value of science.

    --
    Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
  6. Re:It would be better to grow new ones... by cnettel · · Score: 2, Insightful
    A bit like it would be better to just teleport people than going with your typical airline?

    It's hard enough to grow some kinds of human cells, and growing them in an orderly fashion to get the exactness necessary for something like normal vision, is very far away right now. I think it's quite likely that an artificial implant with a good interface will be a good-enough, or even better-than-original solution.