DoE-Sponsored Project Readies Human Trial For Artificial Retinas 82
An anonymous reader writes "'The blind will see again,' could be the motto of the Artificial Retina Project, which is getting ready to implant a 60-pixel artificial retina chip into 10 blind patients later this year. 60-pixels doesn't sound like much, but the 1st gen artificial retina brought tears to the eyes of its six recipients, who claim they can now count large objects with just 16-pixels. If all goes well, a 200-pixel retina will be ready in three years; the chip used is of a 1.2-micron CMOS process, with both power and video supplied wirelessly." (And this is sponsored by the Department of Energy for what reason?)
One person who could really have used this (Score:5, Interesting)
Retinitis Pigmentosa (Score:1, Interesting)
I may have inherited a form of Retinitis Pigmentosa. I am color blind to certain shades of red & green (they look brown or orange or multiple shades of red/green/brown), which can be an indicator of inheritance of the retinal degenerative disorder. I may need bionic eyes (with eye beams, hopefully) when I'm 40 to 60 years old.
Re:16 pixels? 60 pixels? What? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Still a long way from sci-fi (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Still a long way from sci-fi (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:One person who could really have used this (Score:3, Interesting)
No! I was a seeing eye person! Dan didn't need me to lead him around, he still had enough sight for that. He needed me to read monitors, type, and do other things that needed sharp sight.