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Scientists Reverse Engineer Animal Brains To Create Bionic Prosthetic Eyes

MrSeb writes "Utilizing neuroscience, gene therapy, and optogenetics, a pair of researchers from Cornell University have created a bionic prosthetic eye that can restore almost-normal vision to animals blinded by destroyed retinas. Prosthetic eyes have been created before, but for the most part these have been dumb prosthetics — chips that wire themselves into the ganglion cells behind the retina, which are the interface between the retina and optic nerve. These chips receive optical stimuli (via a CMOS sensor, for example), which they transmit as electrical signals to the ganglion cells. These prosthetic eyes can produce a low-resolution grayscale field that the brain can then interpret — which is probably better than being completely blind — but they don't actually restore sight. The Cornell prosthetic eye however, developed by Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath, is a much closer analog to a real eye, almost completely restoring sight in mice — and within 1 or 2 years, humans (PDF)."

4 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Take Note by Sparticus789 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would like mine with a HUD, infrared/night vision, and 50x zoom.

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  2. Re:VISOR by localman57 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, I think they said he had "Optical PlotDeviceocis".

  3. Re:Advancement without damaing life would be bette by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What are you talking about? She was given three rescued and sightless mice to work with, who's tails had been cruelly shortened by their previous caretaker (the bitter spouse of a guy working at a meat processing facility). Now she was able to restore sight to them, and you should see how they run now! See how they run!

  4. Re:Advancement without damaing life would be bette by Jeng · · Score: 3, Funny

    The monkey used was also a rescue who has two siblings, one who cannot hear, and one who cannot make vocal noise.

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