Second Sight
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Tomorrow's bionic eyes will have 'Predator' vision
Whether through illness or injury, 36 million people suffer from blindness worldwide, and until just a decade ago those afflicted had little chance of regaining their sight. In 2009, doctors at the University of Manchester implanted the first Argus II bionic eye in a patient. Now, 10 years later, the makers of the Argus II are trialing a more capable artificial-vision system -- one that's implanted directly into the patient's brain.
Engadget Live L.A. was all about that bass (and some treble)
We've had a great run this year with all our Engadget Live events, taking us to Austin, Seattle, Boston and finally Los Angeles. We packed into the Belasco Theatre in downtown L.A. along with some amazing people and exhibitors -- one who was all about that bass and some...bananas.
Engadget Live hits Los Angeles this Friday!
As we told you last time, there's lots going on in Los Angeles on Friday nights, but we still think our event trumps anything else you could possibly have planned. Our final Engadget Live event of the year kicks off at 7PM this Friday (October 3rd) at the Belasco Theatre.
The hottest party in Los Angeles on October 3rd is...ours
Friday nights in Los Angeles aren't snoozers, especially October 3rd. That night, some celebrity will be caught mid-wardrobe malfunction boozing it up at Club Area by TMZ -- or it could be the night Bruce Jenner holds his epic "freedom" party. While we're thrilled for his escape from Kardashian Prison, we'd like to think that our final Engadget Live event of the year at the Belasco Theatre will be much more exciting -- and a lot less flammable.
Second Sight retinal prosthesis cleared for sale in Europe, a better one already in development
We'd bother with the obvious, but there's no sense in acting exasperated that this thing is finally shipping -- let's just be glad it didn't take a day longer, shall we? Second Sight, a California-based company aiming to help those with degenerative eye disease by way of technology, has finally seen its flagship product approved for "clinical and commercial use" in Europe. The product is the Argus II, and for all intents and purposes, it's a retinal prosthesis (read: implant) that can at least partially restore lost vision. It works a little like this: patients don the camera-laden glasses, where signals are grabbed and fed wirelessly to a chip implanted near ones retina. The information is beamed to around 60 electrodes that "stimulate retinal cells, producing light in a patient's view." According to Technology Review, "the process works for people with retinitis pigmentosa because the disease damages only the light-sensing photoreceptors, leaving the remaining retinal cells healthy." For now, the $115,000 device will only be available through a smattering of clinics in Switzerland, France and the UK. If all goes well, it'll be actively seeking FDA approval next year for use in the US of A, and a version with way more electrodes shouldn't be too far behind.
'Second Sight' turns PSP camera into an augmented reality learning tool [update]
We've recently seen augmented reality used in some pretty clever ways in the gaming space, but Sony subsidiary ConnectED has come up with a way to turn real-time graphical overlays into an educational tool. Using a PSP equipped with a camera, the "Second Sight" technology allows tags embedded in textbooks or magazines to cue relevant audio or video clips directly on the PSP. The program can also create interactive 3D models which the user can examine by changing the orientation of the PSP. Check out the video after the jump to see a video demonstration of what we're talking about, and then imagine how awesome school is going to be in like, fifteen years. Update: We recently heard from Matthew Prodger, studio director at Black Ridge Technologies, who explained that his company was the actual developer and owner of the technology, while ConnectED is simply the distributor of the tech on the PSP. He also said the technology would appear on mobile phones for use in "museums, books, magazines and newspapers over the coming year." [Via Siliconera]
Chopped up or whole: Free Radical for sale
ReSolve Partners, which is handling the administration of Free Radical's dire situation, continues its mantra that there's "stong interest" in the company from buyers. A ReSolve spokesperson told GI.biz that the chop shop company is trying to sell Free Radical whole, but will cut the piggy up if it'll bring in more cash. ReSolve expects to know in the next ten days what pieces potential suitors are interested in picking off from the studio's still-twitching remains. If ReSolve gets lucky, a company will buy the whole hog.Free Radical currently holds several IPs, including TimeSplitters, Second Sight and Haze. We're going to go out on a limb and say that corporate bargain bin shoppers are probably interested in only two of those IPs (Hint: It's not Haze).
