DoE-Sponsored Project Readies Human Trial For Artificial Retinas

An anonymous reader writes "'The blind will see again,' could be the motto of the Artificial Retina Project, which is getting ready to implant a 60-pixel artificial retina chip into 10 blind patients later this year. 60-pixels doesn't sound like much, but the 1st gen artificial retina brought tears to the eyes of its six recipients, who claim they can now count large objects with just 16-pixels. If all goes well, a 200-pixel retina will be ready in three years; the chip used is of a 1.2-micron CMOS process, with both power and video supplied wirelessly." (And this is sponsored by the Department of Energy for what reason?)

Comments

In other news,

[pwnies]

"...wirelessly transmits images to a belt pack containing a microprocessor that processes the video signal" In other news, the encryption scheme for these devices was broken. The only side effect is the blind with these implants have reported seeing a smiley face with the words, "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes" circling around the face.

Re:Still a long way from sci-fi

[Chris Burke]

Even MIT's newer wearable computer enthusiasts are more attractive.

Why on earth would anyone want to wear a computer enthusiast? Is this some extreme form of on-demand tech support? Also, I'm highly skeptical of the claim that computer enthusiasts coming out of MIT, no matter how new, are attractive.

Re:Still a long way from sci-fi

[Alsee]

.: )

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