London (England) – Researchers have performed the first successful bionic eye implants in the United States and Britain and have given three people previously blind people the gift of sight.  The pea-sized implants are actually video cameras that transmit signals to the optic nerves.  This gives the patient rudimentary black and white vision, good enough to detect motion and obstacles.

Mark Humayun, Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, developed the bionic eye which is part of the Argus II retinal implant project.  The eye is linked up to an artificial retina and transmits black and white images to the optic nerve through a sunglasses-mounted transmitter.

US resident Linda Moorfoot was the first patient and received an eye with 16 electrodes, while two patients in Britain received implants with 60 electrodes each.  Professor Humayun says bionic eye technology is rapidly advancing and expects to have an eye with 1000 electrodes within the next four to five years.  These eyes would give patients basic facial recognition.

Sky News has video and some pictures of the artificial eye.  You can view their article here.

An Australian team is also in the bionic eye race and expects to perform its first operation with a few weeks.  They will be implanting a 30-electrode eye.

intrestng

Apr 22, 2008 09:47     

il hav 2 kep an eye on this
POPCORN report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -5

Incredible

Apr 22, 2008 10:53     

Last semester I took a class titled "Sensation and Perception" and a great deal of the class focused on the complexity of our optical system. I am just floored by the advancements made in this field. I did not expect to see an article like this for at least another couple of years.
Ryan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Hmm

Apr 22, 2008 11:06     

Well considering how complex the brain is and the optic center alone, not just the interconnectivity to the cortex, this says a lot, I'm sure soon, they will be able to add color, and make it work like binoculars :). But we can also look at it like this, what if they were hacked into say with, Nano bots, which aren't far down the road either and/or pre programed, they could probably be made to see things and be taken for crazy, it leaves a bit of need for security, least in my opinion.

Dean of Stupid report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

What will be interesting to find out is how well the human brain adapts.

Apr 22, 2008 11:08     

I am curious as to whether the human brain can adapt and improve the interpretation of the data over time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_(vision)
Dog report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Not really new

Apr 22, 2008 11:26     

I've seen a documentary about this some years ago, it even showed a glimpse of what the blind would "see". This was in the very beggining of this technology, as far as i remember the blind could only percept movement, it was a very low resolution image, like some 16 x 16 white dots on a black background. Nice to see some advance in this area. Soon they might even have full-hd bionic eyes :p
Phil report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Bionic Eye v1.x, 2.x Next??

Apr 22, 2008 11:50     

Well, now we know how human bionic eye v1.x works. How soon will it be before v2.x arrives. Someday, maybe the bionic eye WILL have color and zoom capability. Perhaps this will happen within 10 years?
Cypherdude report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Ohh no

Apr 22, 2008 13:07     

So when will my bionic eye implants have too good of a resolution? to the point that my monitor just looks all pixelated?
BDF report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Probably not too soon

Apr 22, 2008 16:32     

How our brain will adapt to treat these implants is a really interesting question. For example deaf people auditory cortex tissue to process periperial vision so that they can maintain eye contact and see hand signs out of the corner of their eye. And yeah of course, if the camera is better or capable of doing things our own eyes can not... that opens the door to some interesting possibilities. A disclaimer there though, we already use all of our ocipital lobe for vision processing. A more accurate eye will not increase the ability of your brain "to see." Damage to vision centers in the brain can cause all kinds of weird problems. No color, no motion perception (think life like a slide show), large blind spots, inability to see lines of a particular orientation, and more; in all those cases the actual eye is 100% ok, yet there is a vision problem.

Ryan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Re: Phil

Apr 22, 2008 20:59     

In the mid '90s there was a guy who had some sort of modded video camera that went to a big box on his belt that let him see the 16X16 'video', and I beleve he got an updated version of it in '01 or '02 that let him see 32X32 in 8bit color. I may be a bit off on the details, but it blew my mind back then. But this sounds like a huge step foreward. No more bulkey box, They can go through the optic nerve rther than putting electrodes directly on the brain (which is probably a little friendlier). And no big camera headgear! This would be neat to keep tabs on.

Caeden report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

"probably not too soon" response

Apr 22, 2008 21:02     

I agree with you in that damage to the brain, not just to the eye, can affect vision. I don't agree with you in that "a more accurate eye would not increase the ability of the brain to see". Increases in visual acuity are limited because of the density of cones in our fovea, not because of brain limitations. If a better eye were introduced in a young enough person, (while brain is developing rapidly) I think they would be capable of better vision. Their brain would learn to use the more accurate signal.

Taylor report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Not long ago TGDaily published an article referring...

Apr 23, 2008 01:30     

Not long ago TGDaily published an article referring to an optic sensor for depth perception on cameras and it's ability to be a first step towards robotic vision. It would be nice to see the "bionic eye team" and the "robotic eye team" cooperate. As it was stated in the "robotic eye article" and in the Ryan's comment above, it's not the resolution but what we can obtain from it. Less pixels, less raw data and yet more information, that's the key, and that's what the hypothetical cooperation would bring IMO.

Virtualban report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1