Aussie "bionic eye" doing well in clinical trials

It's a bit odd, even to us, that bionic eyes aren't really that fresh of a topic these days, but they're still dang awesome, and it looks like a new project by the Bionic Eye Foundation at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital is doing particularly well. The bionic eye works in much the same way as a cochlear implant does, by implanting small electrodes to stimulate the retina, which then sends images on to the optic nerve. The view is generated by a video camera mounted on a pair of glasses, and while it's barely managing flashes of light for patients so far, the method seems plenty promising. There isn't much hope yet of offering full sight, but basic outlines of objects should be possible in the near future, and work is even being done on an implant that sends messages directly to the brain, in case a patient's optic nerve does not function. We're not sure how long it'll take for this technology to get out of the lab on onto the street, but clinical trials are sure a good sign.

[Erik @ Sep 4th 2006 7:25PM]

Funny how this story doesn't make people want to comment on it, but the "PSP 2 rumors" or "[insert geek gadget here] rumors" makes people comment and write freakin' novel-lenght replies...losers.

About this, this is great, great advance in medicine/technology. Hopefully one day this will evolve into the cure for all eye illnesses.

[StandardAI @ Sep 4th 2006 7:38PM]

Maybe it's because this is a 1-2 year old concept that hasn't gotten anywhere. It's the same old story, Yes we can send light to a blind eye, but no they can't make out the images because the resolution is far far too low.

[yubastard @ Sep 4th 2006 7:43PM]

@ #1: that's very, very true...lol

I can't wait to have my eyes replaced by better implants that'll make me see other colors and light spectrums, and even posibly night vision... wonder what happened with x-ray vision? lol

I wish the world from Ghost In The Shell to come to life.

So I can call someone without a fancy phone, and switch my mind from reality to the Wordl Wide Web!

[Ransom @ Sep 4th 2006 7:46PM]

What more is there to say? I don't think it has as much to do with quality of the readers as the lack of possible range of opinions on the subject.

Maybe you can speed the discussion along by suggesting which bionic models you like best, where you can buy them, and what firmware patch has the least bugs. /rolls eyes

[varun @ Sep 4th 2006 7:54PM]

StandardAI, IIRC, I don't think the problem has been that the resolution is too low (just look at the quality of a 5MP camera, for example). I think the problem has been that of encoding the information into a way the brain can usefully process it.

[yubastard @ Sep 4th 2006 8:01PM]

@ #5, that's also true...

remember that experiment that made rat neurons fly an airplane?

we are getting there, just slowly, you know, stimulating neurons and all.

[Rick @ Sep 4th 2006 8:12PM]

cool if you can hookup wirelessly to an Xbox, or even maybe hardwired via 1394, graphics would be incredible.. then maybe a output to a HDMI?

j/k lol

[russ @ Sep 4th 2006 9:48PM]

yes - do the eyes need HD-CP compliance? i.e. would you be able to watch pirate HD content? or would that require a voiding your warranty with a modchip?

[Fortyseven @ Sep 4th 2006 10:00PM]

#1: Another reason it might not get as many comments: few of us can relate to loss of sight, but I'm going to guess more people have a stake in the PSP.

Okay not a great deal more. Bwahaha. Sorry, that was cheap. ;D

[Stingrays Are Terrorists @ Sep 4th 2006 11:15PM]

Krikey! Bothering with eyes? How about a bionic heart for our Aussie national hero the Croc Hunter?

If you don't try to bring him back to life, you're letting the stingrays win.

[Chris Woj @ Sep 5th 2006 1:11AM]

I love the people commenting that there is no progress, as though they have a clue. The breakthroughs coming along quicker than I could have hoped include the ability to send information directly to the brain. When I lost vision in my eye a little over a year ago (I was carjacked, the barrel of a pistol was literally PUNCHED through my eyeball, destroying my retina) I was told that although within five years artificial retinas would be available... it would be a DECADE before I could see because the ability to bypass the optic nerves was that far off and mine would degenerate from lack of use.

And now they're saying that within five years they'll have this ability to bypass the optic nerves. Do you get how important that is to many people who have lost vision? A bionic eye is worthless to those that have been blind for some time without the ability to send the information to the brain. Only the recently blinded could be helped.

Strides are being made, and although I do not fault people for not following it as closely as I have, I can fault you #2/StandardAI for being a flame and pretending you have a clue about what kind of progress is being made for the sake of making a snide remark. Please ignore the comments in threads if you haven't a clue what you're saying.

[HarryC @ Sep 5th 2006 2:32AM]

Great news, incidentally the cochlear implant you mentioned in the article is also an Australian invention.

[nacho @ Sep 5th 2006 2:53AM]

I too have lost vision- in my case due to a genetic eye disease (Sorsby's Fundus Dystrophy) which ruins central vision. I was fully sighted 'till age 30 and then developed "blind" spots. These artificial retinas can't happen quickly enough for my taste. Lots of work remains to be done, particularly on the biological/technological boundry. But artificial retinas, coupled with advances in stem cell and genetic therapy, show tons of promise and give people hope that one day, they may regain their vision.

[eye doc @ Sep 5th 2006 4:36AM]

the optic nerve is a somewhat small "wire", with many millions of nerve cells that all go into various parts of the brain. It is very complex, and poorly understood to put it lightly. It'd be great if we actually could understand all of how it works exactly. We'd be better able to understand diseases such as glaucoma, optic neuritis, optic neuropathies, etc and actually prevent blindness.

I don't have much faith in these type of bionic eyes for anything more that rudimentary vision, and what we would consider horrible vision (aka as "counting fingers") would appear to seem like a miracle to these researchers.

I don't like how its gets people's hopes up. If you want to help people with blindness, work on prevention, get regular eye exams, etc... don't just hope this will work.

[dj @ Sep 5th 2006 7:25AM]

Not true, ther is a lot of hope.
Remember the cochlear implant has only 22 electrodes, replacing 30,000 hair cells. There is also lot of central plasticity that occurs after the sensory elements are restimulated, to restore decent hearing. I think the same will be true of the retinal implant.

[JD @ Sep 5th 2006 8:37AM]

I cannot wait for the day that technologies like this become a reality. Unfortunately for my son, we have been told that since he was born without site, it is unlikely that he would ever be able to see even if this type of technology does advance. They tell us that your brain does not wire itself with the ability to understand sight correctly if there is no sight there during the important developmental stages (I certainly hope the doctors are wrong in this area, or that there are advancements made here too)

When this technology becomes a reality, you can bet that I'll mortgage/sell everything I own, sell bodily organs, beg, steal, and/or kill in order to afford it for my son.

[kothari kranti @ Oct 25th 2006 12:30PM]

i read about site thru a news paper.my son is suffering from coats disease in his righ eye.the retina has been detached since he was 5yrs old.today he is 15yrs.there is no vision in his right eye.can he restore his vision thru bionic eye using an electric current to stimulate the retina.plz write back to me as soon as possible