We've seen
initiatives all over the globe
created in an
attempt to beat blindness, but researchers based at MIT are feeling fairly confident that their development is within a few years of being able to "restore partial sight to people who have slowly gone blind because of degenerative diseases of the retina." The bio-electronic implant, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, would actually sit behind the retina at the back of the eyeball, and images would be transmitted to the brain "via a connector the width of a human hair." As it stands, an FDA grant application is already in the works, and the scientists are hoping to have it implanted in an animal as early as this summer. Still, the solution only works for folks who "were once able to see and have partially intact optic nerve cells" -- those who were blind from birth or suffer from glaucoma are unfortunately ineligible for the procedure.
[Thanks, Rusty]
posted Mar 12th 2008 10:18AM
I am thankful that I do not need this, but if I did I would so get one in Terminator Red...
i am actully one that would benifi from this im only 17 but as of now i can nevr drive and im only about 10-15 points of sight more and i would be able to drive but my eyes havn changed in 10years so if anyone knows where i could get info on being a ginny pig please let me i would be ver greatful
-BEn
This looks promising. Are there other devices like this out?
Yes, it is promising... They have already shown this to work at USC with clinical trials starting back in 2002. Same design, same concept. Not sure what this brings to the table...
More info on the multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, multi-promising project: http://artificialretina.energy.gov/
im waiting for the xxx-ray version of this!
:)
Nice! Shame my girlfriend's little sister lost her optical nerve too =[. Still, its promising, really hope it works and gets approved!!
Very interesting... but a long way to go...
I think making the eye color dark brown would look a little more realistic
I believe that depends solely on who its actually going IN.
im pretty sure that eye is just a mockup used to show the implementation of the device in the eye. I think the actual array is implanted in the back of the eye and would use the eyes natural optics.
straight out of Blade Runner.
I just do eyes, juh, juh... just eyes... just genetic design, just eyes. You Nexus, huh? I design your eyes.
Straight out of Neuromancer!
In 300 years or so, J'Kar will be thankful.
As for Flashpoints rant about religions, dude, you need a reality check before you go flying off the handle with such an irrational rant.
How dare you speak G'Kar's name...
My rant isn't irrational. The Vatican has claimed biotechnology is a "sin" while it also taxes prostitution.
That's irrational...that is BLASPHEMY.
Taxes prostitution?
And your notions about religion sanctioning female circumcision? Please, some segment of an oppressive culture in Africa is hardly sanctioning by religion. Most abuses by religions are normally the culture overtaking any given religion and distorting original teachings for the sake of political power. Your idea that China has the right idea about persecuting religion, or that they somehow take science to the max, is ludicrous. They are vastly more oppressive than the vast majority of religions extant.
Lay off the CAPS, dude. People might think you're UNHINGED.
Quote from Blade Runner (via http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blade_Runner):
Roy Batty: Chew, if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes!
I SEE YOU!!!
:P
this is all well and good untill someone makes one that shoots lasers.
Then it's _awesome_.
Is this your Eyeball, my brotha?!
No matter what I try to do brotha, you gonna die, uh I mean see.
Well, the good news is there are already procedures for patients with glaucoma. Lens replacements and eyeball juice clearing.
The bad news is the tiny electrical signals sent through the "human hair width wire" to the optic nerve are far less complex than the thousands of complex signals the rod and cones and their interaction with the optic nerve produces.
In other words, the "new sight" will be blobs and blurrs, impressions really, unlike focused and accurate nornmal vision. This blob or that blob of colored light would indicate this or that amount of distance or object, and there would be a learning curve for the patient.
There would be no color just black and white. it would be pixelated so the patients learning curve would not be steep at all. as the technology improves the resolution would also increase rapidly.
Yes, that is why the article says that it "seeks to restore partial sight."
To me that is the definition of partial sight.
that is one blinged out eye.
It kinda looks like those super hi-bounce balls you get out of those 25 cent machines.
As geeky as this post will seem this is quite fascinating. Finally this is truly becoming the age of where Star Trek type, and other misc Sci-Fi TV & Movie based technologies are slowly making their way to real life. For once it feels good to look at an older Star Trek TV Show and think "we have harvested that technology that will soon be within arm's reach"
A good example is the Nano technology research that is spreading like wildfire, and just when you only thought that Nano technology research came from the Borg.
Just when I thought that Mad-Eye Moody's mad eye was madly creepy
Cake (Blue) Sphere: "One 18.25 ounce package chocolate cake mix. One can prepared coconut pecan frosting. Three slash four cup vegetable oil. Four large eggs. One cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Three slash four cups butter or margarine. One and two third cups granulated sugar. Two cups all purpose flour. Don't forget garnishes such as: Fish shaped crackers. Fish shaped candies. Fish shaped solid waste. Fish shaped dirt. Fish shaped ethyl benzene. Pull and peel licorice. Fish shaped volatile organic compounds and sediment shaped sediment. Candy coated peanut butter pieces, shaped like fish. One cup lemon juice. Alpha resins. Unsaturated polyester resins. Fiberglass surface resins. And volatile malted milk impoundments. Nine large egg yolks. Twelve medium geosynthetic membranes. One cup granulated sugar. An entry called 'how to kill someone with your bare hands.' Two cups rhubarb, sliced. Two slash three cups granulated rhubarb. One tablespoon all-purpose rhubarb. One teaspoon grated orange rhubarb. Three tablespoons rhubarb, on fire. One large rhubarb. One cross borehole electro-magnetic imaging rhubarb. Two tablespoons rhubarb juice. Adjustable aluminum head positioner. Slaughter electric needle injector. Cordless electric needle injector. Injector needle driver. Injector needle gun. Cranial caps. And it contains proven preservatives, deep penetration agents, and gas and odor control chemicals. That will deodorize and preserve putrid tissue."
I have retinitis pigmentosa, one of those nasty degenerative diseases of which they speak, and as mentioned above, this concept isn't too new (and yes the eyeball is a mockup--it'll go in the patient's existing eye). It seems like this one perhaps is different in that it implants behind the retinal cells instead of on top and the connector seems a little different than what we've seen from others. I'll need to read up on it from the original source to see for sure. It is all great news for me, of course. Now there's a race between genetic engineering and artificial implants to see who can restore partial to full sight first. Gotta love competition!
Make one with a built in laser and I am sold...
RELEASE THE NEURO-TOXIC FUMES!
:-(
nobody got my Portal joke
BTW. Something is wrong here. I mean 25 comments and no "Will it Blend?" or "Can it play Doom?" Comment. Slow day for the trolls, I guess.
Ryan Knighton will be happy.
Give me one with multipurpose vision such as night vision/heat sensor/radiation viewing/x-ray vision/wireless camera and I'd be sold to be the first guinea pig to do this.
I'll have one that doubles as a video camera plz.
Jeff Bezos wants to sell you a new eye ball
And to think LaForge will go for all those years with a visor when optic implants have already been invented.
LaForge loves the Retro Look. Chic's dig it. I mean, you have to agree. What's cool? Plastic eye or gold trimmed visors?
Seven: Doctor, do you think it would improve my social functionality and crew interaction if replaced my ocular implant with a Federation-issue visor?
The Doctor: I'm a Doctor, not a fashion consultant!
Seven: I will consult with Neelix.
Eye prosthetics.
Now with scotch tape.
i am preety sure there is a chance to become physically challenged ! !
This is actually a bit less ambitious than some of the competing technologies, but perhaps that will make it first to actually provide relief to those with advanced retinal degeneration. Some projects are looking to create self contained chips that sit on the retina, receive optical input via the eye's own lens, and pass it on to the optic nerve. The goal is for them to be mini-CMOS type devices on one side and neural transmitters on the other and they are to be effectively solar powered. The device in this story uses an external camera (on a pair of glasses with a battery) to provide the optical input and simply passes the input itself to the optic nerve. Far less ambitious, but perhaps it is the correct solution in the short term. Only time will tell.
The successor to the iPod - the iBall
Q: Where is the clickwheel? How do I scroll menus?
A: Rub it to scroll!