a bionic eye to regain sight

Scientists from America and Hong Kong have developed a bionic eye based on the natural structure of its human counterpart. Ultimately, it could be used as a prosthesis to give sight to the blind.

According to'WHO, there are 253 million people with visual impairment on the planet. Research laboratories around the world are struggling to find technologies to (re) give them sight. Ten years ago retinas were already developed to deliver a semblance of vision to some people with macular degeneration. Scientists from Hong Kong and the United States today published an article in the journal Nature about their advances on a eye which we can consider as the first to be totally bionic. On the few photos published, he makes one think of what one can imagine with such an eye in the scenarios of anticipation. It has the same effect as when you see the first images of the rocket Starship of SpaceX.

Called EC-EYE, for ElectroChemical EYE, in other words, electrochemical eye, the prototype consists of tiny sensors which imitate the real photoreceptor cells of human eyes. They are positioned in a membrane ofaluminum and of tungsten in the shape of a half-sphere. The whole measures an inch wide and forms a retina. It is held in place by a support in polymer of silicone. A lens is placed at the front to resume operation of the eye-ball. Inside the latter, a liquid ionic enhances the similarity with a real eye. For data processing, these are transmitted by thin flexible cables in metal liquid, sheathed with rubber.

Restoring sight to the blind in five years

The current prototype has a resolution limited to 100 pixels and only allows to distinguish certain letters, like E, I and Y for the moment. Similarly, its field of vision is only 100 °, while that of humans can reach 160 °, but this is only the beginning!

Optimists, researchers believe it might be possible to produce a bionic eye as sensitive, if not more effective than that of humans in just five years. Thus, they consider it conceivable to increase the density of nanosensors so that it can be ten times greater than the photoreceptors of real eyes.

Researchers are also exploring the use of these eyes for humanoid robots. Development, they say, would be much simpler. In the meantime, despite its poor performance, this prototype is already remarkable. It is the first time that a synthetic version of an eye incorporating its natural characteristics has just been created.

Bionic eye: new hopes for the visually impaired

Article by Laurent Sacco, published on 07/08/2009

For the past few years, laboratories have been working on the development of artificial retinas to give a semblance of sight to visually impaired people. The first implantations took place in 2002 with a first generation of devices. A second generation is being studied, notably in a French hospital.

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In patients with Macular degeneration or from retinitis pigmentosa ((retinitis pigmentosa), only photoreceptor cells in the retina are affected. Their nerve connections and the nerve optics themselves remain intact and therefore functional. The idea is to use a mini camera on a pair of glasses to record an image and transmit it by radio to a very small plate equipped with a network ofelectrodes implanted on the patient's retina. By stimulating the nerve connections, a semblance of vision should be able to be rendered, with black and white images whose resolution increases with the number of electrodes present on the plate.

In 2002, Dr. Mark Humayun successfully implant a first device of this kind and until 2004 six patients with retinitis pigmentosa, aged 56 to 77, benefited from this still rudimentary technique. The success was however sufficient for the creation of a project bringing together American research laboratories, such as those of Caltech and Los Alamos, in order to perfect the technique. Her name : Artificial Retina Project.

Improvements in sight

The initial device, called Argus I, gave way the same year to tests of an artificial retina with 60 electrodes, Argus II. To date, 30 people have served as guinea pigs for the experiments and not only in the United States. For example, tests have been carried out at Center Hospitalier National d'Ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts at Paris.

The Argus II model is smaller and its installation requires 2 hours of operation, instead of the 6 hours required by its predecessor. A third generation is being developed in the laboratories and should reach 200 electrodes. Researchers believe that it is possible to further miniaturize the device to achieve a thousand electrodes. This is still low compared to the millions of receptors in a human eye. But as shown by the simulations carried out by Wolfgang Fink with a computer program supposed to optimize the images supplied by the camera to the electrodes, such a quantity should already significantly improve the eyesight of the patients.

If Steve Austin's eye may be for the next few decades for when the bionic bodies of Ghost in the shell ?

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