IIP's retinal implant restores limited eyesight to the blind

There have been some more academic inquiries into this concept, but it looks like IIP is the first to commercialize this retinal implant technology, which combines an ocular microchip with a small video camera integrated into a pair of glasses to restore limited vision to patients with hereditary blindness. The processing duties are handled by a microcomputer clipped to a belt, which takes visual information received by the glasses and converts it into electrical pulses that stimulate the patient's optic nerve.

[Via I4U]

[Rafael @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

It's a great use of the human inteligence !

[jmg_bt21 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

You fear the nanobots and robot brethren... and the genetically created super humans...

HOW about the CYBORGS that shall walk among us?

This is cool... uh, well sort of...

[kffjjffff @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

finally.

this is beside the point, but blindess is my biggest fear ever. especially because my sight is getting worse and worse...

but ON the point, this technology has been around for awhile and it's about time people start benefiting from it. i bet the image quality sucks though- but im sure in time it could be a practical solution to impaired vision in general. that is, for those who cant have laser eye surgery

[Lisa Giovanni @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Wow, that thing looks cool.

[AH @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

In 2000 they had a TV special (so you know it was old hat even then) about a research project of this sort... 8x8 pixel vision, black and white... I expect there has been some improvement on that

[Will @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

ah I get a warm feeling inside when I see that some people aren't just researching how to make girls breasts bigger :D

[Eightyford @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

This is the kind of thing that deserves patent protection. Not 'one click shopping' on Amazon.

[EchoStorm @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Not to rain on anyone's parade here, but I'm having trouble determining exactly how far along IIP is on this track. Their latest press release (http://www.iip-tec.com/pdf/Medienmitteilung%20241104_E_1.pdf) is skimpy on the details, and the information that is given has already been shown by other groups. Furthermore, their own web site states, "The learning Retinal Implant is still being studied in clinical trials and is not yet available commercially," so I'm not sure what triggered the "first to commercialize" reference in this post.

In any case, there are several companies (SecondSight comes to mind, http://www.2-sight.com) working toward this end, and I don't see any clear leader emerging just yet. And yes, while people have had this concept and technology for a while, from someone working in the field . . . trust me, you do not want anyone implanting these devices into you in their current state. Besides the fact they, in fact, haven't improved terribly from the 8x8 resolution mentioned earlier (16x16 now, reproducibly), safety issues are emerging in the form that simultaneous stimulation of neighboring areas of visual cortex (I realize IIP's device stimulates the optic nerve) results in epileptic seizures.

Unless IIP's R&D is light years ahead of the published literature on this topic, it's going to be at least 10 years before we see anything like this come to market, and as much as the researchers who are tackling this problem and the patients who would benefit from it would like it to be sooner, I just don't see that happening.

[Ike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

I just can't wait for them to expand the camera to the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. Now that will be cool. It would almost make a person want to go blind in order to get that feature.

Eat your heart out Preadator...