This implant is meant for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. It is not meant as a replacement for functional eyes.:)
It will likely not be as good as normal vision for a *very* long time, if ever; it is meant to return some mobility and possibly face and detail recognition to people who have gone blind by retinal degeneration.
Furthermore, this is not a "cure" for these diseases. The rods and cones still die, but are "replaced" by an external camera and some implanted circuits and electrodes to stimulate the retinal nerves which form the optic nerve.
In response to those asking whether this is new: it's not. Most of the groups working on artificial vision (retinal implants, cortical implants, optic nerve implants) have been at it for well over a decade. What is new is the development by some of these groups of actual implantable devices, as shown in the Technology Review article. Previous experiments typically involved electrodes inserted into the eye of a blind volunteer for a short time, with all of the electronics remaining outside.
Slashdot Mirror
It will likely not be as good as normal vision for a *very* long time, if ever; it is meant to return some mobility and possibly face and detail recognition to people who have gone blind by retinal degeneration.
Furthermore, this is not a "cure" for these diseases. The rods and cones still die, but are "replaced" by an external camera and some implanted circuits and electrodes to stimulate the retinal nerves which form the optic nerve.
In response to those asking whether this is new: it's not. Most of the groups working on artificial vision (retinal implants, cortical implants, optic nerve implants) have been at it for well over a decade. What is new is the development by some of these groups of actual implantable devices, as shown in the Technology Review article. Previous experiments typically involved electrodes inserted into the eye of a blind volunteer for a short time, with all of the electronics remaining outside.