Retina Chip Implant-BIONIC VISION

Retina chip implant, coupled with an external camera, restores vision in the blind; scientists now working on mini camera that can be implanted as well.

 

   Agroup of American scientists have given a visually-impaired grandmother a chance to see her grandchildren dance and play football.
   Linda Moorfoot, who suffers from the eye condition retinitis pigmentosa that causes blindness, is thrilled after having part of her sight restored by a bionic eye.
   The new invention is a tiny camera that scientists hope to actually insert into the eye within the next five years.
   The new technology tested by Moorfoot uses an external camera worn on a pair of dark glasses. The camera sends images to a radio receiver implanted near the eye, which transmits a signal on to a tiny silicon and platinum chip that sits on the retina.
   This information then goes down the optic nerve into the brain.
   "When I go to the grandkids' hockey game or soccer game I can see which direction the game is moving in," Moorfoot said.
   "I can shoot baskets with my grandson. And I can see my granddaughter dancing across the stage. It's wonderful," she added.
   The team led by Dr Mark Humayun – a professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles – have now developed a small and powerful camera that could be implanted inside the patient's eye, rather than worn on a pair of glasses.
   "The camera is very, very small and very low power, so it can go inside your eye and couple your eye movement to where the camera is," said Dr Humayun. "With this kind of missing information, the brain can fill in. This field is really blossoming."
   "So in the next four to five years I hope, and we all hope, that we will see technology that's much more advanced," he added.
   "There are millions of people around the world with sight loss. We would welcome any developments that could prevent sight loss and restore sight," said Christina Nicolaidou, spokeswoman for the UK-based Royal National Institute of Blind (RNIB).
   "This research could be exciting and we will be following it over the next few years to see how it develops," she added. ANI

 

 

Scientist Dr Mark Humayun has developed a small and powerful camera that could be implanted inside a patient's eye, rather than worn on a pair of glasses TOP: A prototype of the chip that may eventually be inserted onto the retina.