Scientists Reverse Engineer Animal Brains To Create Bionic Prosthetic Eyes 96
MrSeb writes "Utilizing neuroscience, gene therapy, and optogenetics, a pair of researchers from Cornell University have created a bionic prosthetic eye that can restore almost-normal vision to animals blinded by destroyed retinas. Prosthetic eyes have been created before, but for the most part these have been dumb prosthetics — chips that wire themselves into the ganglion cells behind the retina, which are the interface between the retina and optic nerve. These chips receive optical stimuli (via a CMOS sensor, for example), which they transmit as electrical signals to the ganglion cells. These prosthetic eyes can produce a low-resolution grayscale field that the brain can then interpret — which is probably better than being completely blind — but they don't actually restore sight. The Cornell prosthetic eye however, developed by Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath, is a much closer analog to a real eye, almost completely restoring sight in mice — and within 1 or 2 years, humans (PDF)."
Take Note (Score:3, Funny)
I would like mine with a HUD, infrared/night vision, and 50x zoom.
Re:VISOR (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Advancement without damaing life would be bette (Score:4, Funny)
What are you talking about? She was given three rescued and sightless mice to work with, who's tails had been cruelly shortened by their previous caretaker (the bitter spouse of a guy working at a meat processing facility). Now she was able to restore sight to them, and you should see how they run now! See how they run!
Re:Advancement without damaing life would be bette (Score:4, Funny)
The monkey used was also a rescue who has two siblings, one who cannot hear, and one who cannot make vocal noise.