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

Re:16 pixels? 60 pixels? What?

[MindStalker]

its 16 neural brain connections, not necessarily 16 pixel camera.

Re:16 pixels? 60 pixels? What?

[PieSquared]

My guess is because of the difficulty in connecting 300,000+ (how exactly is color encoded for the brain?) wires/electrodes to the optical nerve (or directly to the brain?) accurately in a confined space.

Re:Retinitis Pigmentosa

[m-kirkcaldie]

Unless it has developed recently, that sounds more like standard red-green colour blindness - which is a genetic defect and not a progressive degeneration.

Re:DOE

[Mr. Slippery]

For the same reason the Department of Commerce is responsible for our atomic clocks?

Standard weights and measures are vital for commerce. It's logical that the Department of Commerce is responsible for our official measurements of time.