VisionCare Implantable Miniature Telescope
posted November 1st 2005 2:25PM
We tend to get excited when a technology comes along, like all those
robotic exoskeletons that are popping up
these days, that promises us super-human abilities in the not-so-distant future. Well Israel-based VisionCare is not as
concerned with giving super-vision to the average Joe as they are with helping restore eyesight in age-related macular
degeneration (AMD) patients, but we can see the tech behind their Implantable Miniature Telescope being used for all
sorts of comic book-like fun. The VisionCare device, which just finished its Phase II/III clinical trials, consists of
two wide-angle glass microlenses that refocus incoming images away from the damaged macula and over to healthier parts
of the eye. The IMT is surgically implanted into one cornea of an AMD sufferer in an outpatient procedure, and provides
a 2.2x or 3x magnification to the affected eye, while the other eye is left to monitor peripheral vision. Once these
mini 'scopes are approved for general use, we'd like to hack one for better magnification and resolving power, then use
our eagle-eye to wow the rest of our cheat-prone foursome in USGA tournaments that still
disallow electronic rangefinders.
[Via medGadget]
I don't exactly understand how you control this thing. Is it fixed magnification?
Ah yes, the Palmer Eldrich model, a classic choice.
Can I get an order of teleoptics with a cross-hair hud?
Can I get an order of teleoptics with a cross-hair hud?
Does this mean I can continue to masterbate without the worries of going blind?
correction - USGA and The R&A (Royal and Ancient) now allows (starting in 2006) rangefinders to be used in tournament play. Who want to fish out a clunky old laser range finder, I want an implantable device to do it for me! We can rebuild him....
Technically you could continue to do that even if you HAVE gone blind...
Well, now for a serious post.....this is really actuallly a fantastic development. Having whats known as Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, I have had to use a monocular (telescope), all my life. I would assume the magnification is controlled by the same contractions of the muscles around the front of the eye. The same way our eyes focus know. The concept is not that far fetched considering liquid lenses and such. This is just one step short of a bi-optic replacement for my fubard set!
This is very cool!
I have 20/20 vision, but value eyesight above all my other functions. Hopefully advances like this can help "altgenetics" and others.
Probably won't help your golf score too much. You'd most likely lose your depth perception. I'm curious how they resolve that issue (which is the same reason you get a splitting headache when you only have one contact lens in)...
Just don't look at the sun for too long!
1. From what I've read(as Popular Sci/Mech had an article on it years ago), only one eye gets the "telescope." The magnification is controlled by that eye's natural focusing mechanism, but it takes a while to get the "zoom" down.
This would be highly amazing for zooming. Binoculars shake lots on high magnification, but your eyes should manage. It would be a bit weird at first though, take your shoe off and see the worlds biggest human toe!
Poster 1, One eye would be normal point of view, the other telephoto. The telephoto eye allows some detail of what is being missed by the normal lensed eye with the bad movie screen in back, macular degeneration blotting out the middle of the field of view. This could provide more info even if both eyes had equal amounts of central blindness.