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Bionic Eye Gives Blind Man Sight

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.

AmigaMMC writes "A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye. Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London's Moorfield's eye hospital. He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks using the bionic eye, known as Argus II. I wouldn't go as far as claiming he regained his sight, but this certainly is a biotechnological breakthrough."

11 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. 73 years old? by amclay · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I would have imagined they would want a subject that would live for longer (average) so that they could continue to have studies about long-term use and wear on the eye socket. That being said, I'm glad progress is being made, and look forward to my own cybor...er replacement eye.

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  2. When i see things like this... by glitch23 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wish the scientists would provide a picture that represents what the person can see so we can see for ourselves just how much of a breakthrough it is. Obviously if the guy can perform daily tasks it is great and I'm happy for the guy but I'd like to see the qualify of the images he is seeing for my own curiousity.

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    this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
    1. Re:When i see things like this... by jd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There are photos on the web of images grabbed from the optic nerve of a cat. They're old, but the description given (can barely see the full moon on a cloudless night) seems to compare well with those early experiments in image capture, and image capture is much easier than image injection (which is what these guys are doing).

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    2. Re:When i see things like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The Argus II has a 6x10 electrode matrix. While you can think of it as a static array, in reality, the patient is moving the head (think scanning), so there is a bit more of information than what should be apparent. Having an accurate picture of what they actually can see is not easy: the brain rewires and adapts after several months of using the implant; for instance, when talking with an implanted patient in trials of the early array (4x4), he described seeing contours of things, which if you think about, does not make a lot of sense for an array of that resolution...

    3. Re:When i see things like this... by evilsofa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have retinitis pigmentosa; I'm 39, and have only lost my peripheral vision so far. Pictures of what I can see and can't see wouldn't translate very well. The part of my vision where I can't see does not show as black, like when you close your eyes. There's no color at all - it's not color, it's nothing. What color do you see out of the back of your head?

      The nothing is so nothing that as it slowly took over my peripheral vision over a period of 20 years, I never noticed it was there. It was not until an optometrist looked into my eyes while I was getting new glasses that I found out it was happening.

  3. Re:Then again by Feminist-Mom · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I agree. There need to be more "follow-up" journalism in general. I keep hearing about improvements in solar electric panels, but then never hear again about the "breakthrought".

  4. The Eyeball Singularity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since they've gotten the eye-brain interface worked out, how long can it really take before artificial eyes are better than human ones? Technology increases exponentially, as a general rule.

    Myself, I'm looking forward to open source eyes.

    1. Re:The Eyeball Singularity by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You also have to encode, wirelessly transmit and wirelessly power the whole system.

      Yeah, I noticed the wirelessness in the video. (And a 30-second ad followed by a 36 second video -- really, BBC?)

      My first thought was to tag the story whatcouldgowrong -- why does it need to be wireless? How do you prevent someone from jamming it, or wirelessly broadcasting horse porn directly into your eyeball?

      (Yes, I know we can do this already using the visual spectrum. The difference is, doing it that way, at least you can turn away, tear it down, or find whoever's doing it and hurt them, badly. This way, I could have something in my pocket broadcast lemonparty to your eyes on the subway, and you'd never know it was me.)

      I mean, nothing against it if they're using strong crypto -- but even there, what happens if that crypto is broken within your lifetime? How do you update it, short of surgery?

      Of course, on the plus side, if you solve these problems, you can then broadcast whatever you want directly into your eyes, whenever you want -- forget clumsy VR goggles or "wearable" computers, just hook your eye up to your iPhone and go.

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  5. Ironically by geekoid · · Score: 1, Interesting

    he lost his sight the same year the Six Million Dollar Man went off the air. Coincidence?

    why yes.

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  6. Re:It is VERY impressive by TinBromide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I read an article about how they strapped special glasses onto owls that flipped the world upside down. They found that it took the owls a few days to kill prey perfectly, but they got to within 99% of their prior abilities with the glasses on in a relatively short time (like a few days).

    When they took the glasses off the owls took a few hours to re-orient themselves to the original right side up orientation.

    Its been like a decade since I read the article or saw the documentary, but I remember commentary about how if they applied it to humans, there would be a similar learning curve.

    Who knows, if given enough time, they might not have needed to re-orient the points for the signal processing.

    I also remember reading that the only thing that babies can make out visually are bright spots and faces, but that was in a facial recognition article about how the brain has a hardwired portion that flashes bright when a face appears in its vision. (Its why we like looking through photos with people in them).

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  7. Eyes don't see. by Tatarize · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No. He's been blind a while. Even with people with transplants to completely restore vision take a while to be able to see. Just as cochlear implants take some time to make use of. The point you should take to heart is that eyes don't see, the brain sees. The device restores the sense triggering in his eye. That's a requirement for sight but none of the work. It's like fixing a camera lens and ignoring the fact that that camera itself doesn't have any firmware.

    He won't instantly have his vision restored. This is why people are supposing his vision will continue to improve. It isn't because the device is going to start working better but because his brain is going to keep wiring up better and better.

    Which brings us to Prozac which has actually shown itself to help with the plasticity of the visual centers of the brain. This is also why the original post noted that you should have a younger brain (more plasticity).

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