DoE-Sponsored Project Readies Human Trial For Artificial Retinas

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 26, 2008 @07:39AM from the so-the-government-can-tell-you-what-you-see dept.

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?)

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DOE by dietlein · 2008-06-26 07:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

And this is sponsored by the Department of Energy for what reason?

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

Seriously though, the DOC, DOE, etc., each have a variety of national labs, each of which have many areas of research. I'd suppose the DOE's expertise in high-reliability sensors (for light and all other wavelengths of radiation) is one reason why they mesh well with this project.