The Blind Shall See Again, But When?

An anonymous reader writes "Restoring hearing with cochlea implants that replace the inner ear with an electronic version has become standard procedure for many types of deafness. Now it looks like the same thing might happen for many types of blindness. With five national labs funded by the Department of Energy, this third-generation artificial retina promises to enable the blind to see again soon. Already it has been successful in over a dozen test patients, but at resolutions too low for doing much more than proving the concept. However, if the DoE can perfect this larger version of an artificial retina, then the company Second Sight promises to commercialize the implant, aiming for VGA resolution within the decade."

Comments

nevermind the blind -- bring on the androids

[caffeinemessiah]

If they achieve VGA resolution, it's a steady road to full vision for the blind. I'm more interested in, at this point, exceeding human abilities. Think of the case of HDR imaging -- we currently don't have monitors (most of us at least) that are high dynamic range themselves, so images have to be "tone-mapped" to the dynamic range of our monitors, which often results in those ridiculously sharp but somewhat "unrealistic" pictures you see on Flickr.

It would be cool if, say, the IR spectrum or just more dynamic range in the visible spectrum could be tone-mapped to human perception in this way, resulting in perceptually sharper images by way of a direct retinal implant.

Re:nevermind the blind -- bring on the androids

[natehoy]

If they achieve better than VGA resolution, it's a steady road to needing HDMI cables, and I'm not convinced they will fit. ;)

Re:nevermind the blind -- bring on the androids

[flaming error]

Make sure you include some kind of tuner, because I don't want to have to see Radio Disney nor the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. But full-body scans at the airport might be a fun channel - those x-ray glasses I ordered when I was 12 didn't work.

For the visually-impaired computer user...

[Tubal-Cain]

Try working on a VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort/whatever input, too. Bypass monitors altogether.

Blindness Sucks

[techsoldaten]

My Dad just had a stroke and has no perception on the left side of his body.

All I have been thinking about the last month is how to do something like this, set up something that can do motion detection and help him avoid collisions.

You know, I would go for low resolution versus no resolution right now.

M

Optical nerve still needed.

[St.Creed]

This reminds me of a small girl we met at the swimmingpool (lessons), who had one visible cochlear implant. This girl turned out to be deaf from birth on both ears. I remarked to her mother that she could actually hear and talk amazingly well - I hadn't noticed anything in her speech. According to the doctors this was nigh impossible, but she had enough input from the 16 nerves to get perfect speech and reasonable hearing. She probably got very lucky with the connections on the nerves. So even with 16 nerves stimulated this could make a huge difference for someone who's blind, if they happen to hit the right connections.

Yeah I know - anecdotal evidence and such. Still, I'm happy they get this far already.

Oh, and I won't be upgrading my retina unless it matches the resolution of my computer display and comes with infrared, zoom and millimeterwave vision options. Preferably with scrolling 6502 assembly code on the left side as well :P

Re:This is BAD BAD BAD

[lwsimon]

Flip that argument - who's up for preventing blacks from purchasing skin lightening or radical plastic surgery?

See, kids, that's called a false dichotomy.

Whoa

[MrEricSir]

Keanu Reeves approves of this idea.

Re:This is BAD BAD BAD

[je ne sais quoi]

That was my gut reaction too but I learned something reading the wikipedia page on cochlear implants:

If a child is placed into a mainstream setting it makes it difficult for them because they feel like they do not fit in with their peers and cannot fully identify with the Deaf community. One interviewee in the Christiansen and Leigh study states "In high school it was the worst time for me with the cochlear implant because I was really trying to find my identity with the cochlear implant...I never accepted my deafness. And the cochlear implant in some ways showed me that no matter what, the moment I take it off I'm deaf. I'll never be hearing 24 hours." [37]

I'm not deaf but I think that there is enough a community for deaf people that they have a cultural identity of being deaf. By implanting children with the device, they are no longer in that culture, but neither are they a "normal" fully hearing person, even when they have the device plugged in. This may actually lead to a lower self-esteem for the child than if they were surrounded by people like them (i.e. deaf). But then again, teenagers or children who don't fit in or feel inadequate for any reason are as common as grass since schools and children tend to try and enforce sociological homogeneity, it doesn't matter if you wear thick glasses, are socially maladjusted, or have any other issue that makes you different from the "average" kid.

As for black people, I think the GP needs to learn a bit about skin tone discrimination amongst african americans and asians before he starts shooting off about skin lighteners and their evilness. Even americans of european descent do it, ever hear the term "redneck"? It immediately conjures a picture in one's mind of someone who is often poorly educated and poor financially and is often overweight.

URL Shorteners

[emkyooess]

Can we not use bit.ly and other URL shorteners on /.? There's no need to. They're harmful, actually. Thanks!

In the land of the blind...

[f8l_0e]

the man with 640x480 is king.