Bionic Eye Implant Available In US Next Month 102
kkleiner writes "Starting next month, Americans suffering from degenerative eye diseases can get excited about the launch of the Argus II, a bionic eye implant to partially restore vision. Designed for those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, the Argus II is a headset that looks akin to Google Glass but is actually hard wired into the optic nerve to transmit visual information from a 60 electrode array. The device opens the door for similar 'humanitarian' implants that both reduce the difficulty in getting government approval and increase the adoption of brain implants."
Re:Hard wired (Score:5, Insightful)
Any signal disruption from interference would cause blindness.
... which would be awesome because then you could have LaForge moments! And say shit like "My visor just cut out, I'm getting wide spectrum EM interference!" and 'blindly' grope your date.
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The primary thing to upgrade is the electrode array, which means you're going to have to open up the patient's eye anyway. With a hardwired connection you don't need to worry about powering the array, signal quality, processing the incoming signal, etc. You also have fewer security concerns.
Re:Hard wired (Score:4, Interesting)
> The primary thing to upgrade is the electrode array, which means you're going to have to open up the patient's eye anyway. With a hardwired connection you don't need to worry about powering the array, signal quality, processing the incoming signal, etc. You also have fewer security concerns.
Been there, done that. Designed some of the first current stimulators for visual prostheses. There are *enormous* problems with increasing the resolution of the electrode array. One is that, by connecting to the optic nerve directly, all the pre-processing edge detection and motion detection that occurs in the retina is skipped. The optic nerve normally carries pre-processed data. That pre-processing is sophisticated and very individual, depending on the individual's own physical connections between sight related sensors. If you don't believe me, look up Jerry Lettvin's old single electrode work on frog visual sensors.
Another is that as the electrodes become smaller, the current density becomes higher, electrical noise increases, and the amount of voltage necessary to deposit enough charge to stimulates local neurons climbs. Some of that means power issues for the stimulator, other parts mean that when the current density gets high enough due to tiny electrodes, you get electrolysis, which is *BAD* to do inside someone's active nervous system if you'd like the nerves to ever work again.
None of this is helped by digital processing, or trying to send the signal down an RF or magnetically coupled signal to an embedded receiver. That lesson was learned the hard way with other neural implants, such as cochlear implants and muscular-neural interfaces..
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Yeah! And you could offer free eyes that occasionally replace things with placement ads!
And send vision data to our government benefactors to help protect us from terrorists and ourselves!
Tomorrow is today, my friend.
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Only thing we need to know: (Score:4, Funny)
Will it make that cool "boop-boop-boop-boop" noise?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPJ2ZjYlY38 [youtube.com]
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Wrong sound effect. Try here:
http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Bionic_Man_Sounds [soundboard.com]
and choose "Bionic eye sound 1"
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Will it make that cool "boop-boop-boop-boop" noise?
Of course! That's why Picard always borrows it to save the Enterprise!
Just great... (Score:5, Interesting)
Now people who rage agains't people with Google Glass are going to go ape shit over someone who has an actual disability :(
I remember reading about people doing that to disabled people using Segways.
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I'm not entirely convinced the segway will help that disability at all.
Sure it would help getting around, but it would also help the obesity an awful lot too.
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Obesity.
I thought that's what those scooters were for.
Yeah, it's a disability. Deal with it.
Whether or not it is a disability, I just cannot imagine an obese person using a segway. Wouldn't they prefer an option that did not require them to stand?
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Honestly... Segways for the Disabled [lmgtfy.com]
You don't need to be fully mobile to lean.
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---
You know, I really hate lmgtfy. It implies that there are such things as stupid questions, which is something that I try to not believe in. And why should anyone ask anything of anyone else, when non-judgmental google is just a mouse-click away? It's not like someone might want to contribute to a semi-realtime conversation with other actual humans, right?
I was genuinely curious what kinds of disabilities a segway would help wi
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Y I was genuinely curious what kinds of disabilities a segway would help with. I mean, if you can stand and lean, that implies that you can walk, does it not? And if you can walk, what do you need a seqway for? What part of your disability is it compensating for at that point?
There are indeed problems that make it difficult to walk, yet the person has no problem standing.
Charcot Marie Tooth for instance. This is a genetic condition that slows down the transmission of nerve signals. It comes on at different stages of life, It affects different areas of the body, often times legs, some times hands, some times eyes. Odd condition.
The typical sufferer wears braces that help them stand straight, and to help avoid the ankle turning that often happens. With these, a person can hav
Re: Just great... (Score:1)
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You know, I really hate lmgtfy. It implies that there are such things as stupid questions, which is something that I try to not believe in. And why should anyone ask anything of anyone else, when non-judgmental google is just a mouse-click away? It's not like someone might want to contribute to a semi-realtime conversation with other actual humans, right?
Your offence is noted, though as the other poster noted, LMGTFY isn't meant to imply there are stupid questions, only that it was something that ought to have just been googled.
I particularly felt like expressing an "attitude" because I was "hearing" an attitude in your post (and others) that implied that Segways don't make sense for people who are disabled, when I consider that patently false. (I actually see it as being more useful to people with mobility problems then for people who can walk normally.)
An
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I don't take it that way. To me it means there are questions that now one can easily be answered by search rather than asking someone else. "How tall is the Eiffel Tower" is not a stupid question, but posting it online instead of looking it up is a bit rude.
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> What kinds of disabilities would a segway help overcome
Er... you know that Segway was actually a spin-off technology from the iBot, which was basically a Segway wheelchair with a second pair of wheels it could use in places that were too unstable for Segway-like operation (read: sand at a beach), when the user wanted to lower the chair down to normal seating height (to sit at a table/desk or converse), or even to climb stairs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibot [wikipedia.org]
Unfortunately, production ceased a few years
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Er... you know that Segway was actually a spin-off technology from the iBot, which was basically a Segway wheelchair with a second pair of wheels it could use in places that were too unstable for Segway-like operation (read: sand at a beach), when the user wanted to lower the chair down to normal seating height (to sit at a table/desk or converse), or even to climb stairs.
Actually, I was not aware of that. Thank you for informing me about it.
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What kinds of disabilities would a segway help overcome, that would not also hamper use of a segway?
Heart disease, COPD, fibromyalgia, lots of conditions. Not all physical disabilities are readily apparent.
Bionic eye! (Score:1)
Sweet, I've been waiting for this! Well, I've really been waiting for an bionic eye that has zoom function, x-ray vision, recording capability, etc.
We're getting there!
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Wait a little longer. This thing has very limited improvement thus far.
That's "improvement over blindness," in case anyone wasn't sure what he meant.
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Don't forget the crosshairs when linked to your fire arm.
They developed a bionic arm with a built in flamethrower?
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Sweet, I've been waiting for this! Well, I've really been waiting for an bionic eye that has zoom function, x-ray vision, recording capability, etc.
I don't have a bionic eye, but I do have a bionic implant in my left eye. No zoom, x-ray, or recording (I have a phone to do that with, don't need it built in) but my previously extreme nearsightedness and age-related farsightedness are cured. I have better than 20/20 vision at all distances now, I see better than most teenagers, and I'm 61 years old!
Surgery in
Insurance coverage? (Score:3)
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Not mine. Mine's with Aetna.
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Re:Insurance coverage? (Score:5, Funny)
It had better. This procedure costs six million dollars.
That's in 1974 dollars. It's about $29 million dollars today!
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Re:Insurance coverage? (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot UID 1241138, a man barely alive. We can rebuild him. We have the technology to build the world's first bionic man, better, faster, stronger, able to understand the previous generation's pop culture references.
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I don't see how you can get the procedure to cost $6 mio.
You may want to look up popular usage of the word 'Bionic' [wikipedia.org] some time.
G'Kar wants to know... (Score:5, Funny)
Does it come in red?
Who can afford it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Man, at six million dollars, that comes out to $100K per pixel. But if it comes with a bionic arm and a couple of bionic legs, I'm in.
(sorry, somebody had to make the predictable joke)
MY BRAND (Score:1)
MY SPECIAL EYES
Just in time for X-mas! (Score:5, Funny)
I can finally get that Red Ryder BB gun and Mom will have no argument!
Bionic (Score:2)
Re:Bionic (Score:5, Funny)
Darkness won't engulf my head
I can see by infra-red
How I hate the night
- Marvin
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Well, they have to interface with the optic nerve. I'm pulling this from half-remembered biology lectures, but IIRC nobody is actually sure if the optic nerve can handle a broader spectrum input. It might work, it might compress the new expanded spectrum into the common perceived one, or it might just flip out and overload. We don't know.
Why would the optic nerve need to handle the broader spectrum? You could easily do the "nomalization" in software before
sending it to the optic nerve and even have the software autoswitch to "night vision" when ambient light gets low.
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Well, they have to interface with the optic nerve. I'm pulling this from half-remembered biology lectures, but IIRC nobody is actually sure if the optic nerve can handle a broader spectrum input. It might work, it might compress the new expanded spectrum into the common perceived one, or it might just flip out and overload. We don't know.
We should test it on a living being. I think an animal rights protester would be a suitable test subject, save the tigers and all that.
the cyborgs come (Score:3)
Yes, people with implanted electronic hardware exist. Remember when that was a dream?
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My 70 year old professor been a cyborg for the last 20 years...
That might explain why he gets so nervous around that solid gold award for mathematics.
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Already happened to a guy in a French McDonald's, either late last year or early this one.
If I find the article I'll post a link.
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Got it for you: http://io9.com/5926587/what-may-be-the-worlds-first-cybernetic-hate-crime-unfolds-in-french-mcdonalds
Steve Mann, the "father of wearable computing," has been physically assaulted while visiting a McDonalds in Paris, France.
The Canadian university professor was at the restaurant with his family when three different McDonalds employees took exception to his "Digital Eye Glass" device and attempted to forcibly remove it from his head. Mann was then physically removed from the store by the empl
Excellent (Score:2)
Can't wait to get a pair of these! [imageshack.us]
Re:Yeah, great (Score:5, Interesting)
I suffer from keratoconus in both my eyes. It's a degenerative disorder whereby my corneas gradually become thinner and bulge into a cone shape, causing hopelessly-distorted vision. Until just a few years ago, you could treat some of the symptoms, but the only actual cure was to wait until it got unbearably bad and then go in for a transplant of the entire cornea. I've been legally blind since about 2007.
But this year I was able to have a newly-developed, minimally-invasive surgery done that halted the progression and strengthened my corneas. Now, after the surgery and using special contact lenses, I'm able to have 20/20 vision for the first time since I was in middle school.
Underwhelmed? Fuck, man, I love the future.
Bionic? They keep using this word... (Score:2)
It originally meant that you made technology that resemble the functioning, often even the appearance, of biology, like Dune's ornithopters vs a helicopter.
"the use of biological prototypes for the design of man-made synthetic systems. To put it in simpler language: to study basic principles in nature and emerge with applications of principles and processes to the needs of mankind." Dr. Jack E. Steele (original coining in ~'60)
what determines Slashdot article initial expansion (Score:5, Interesting)
With A Name Like Argus (Score:2)
What do they see? (Score:2)
The end of the video mentions how the patient learns to interpret the "visual patterns" that they see. Is anything known about what they actually see? Are researchers essentially (pardon the pun) running blind when it comes to designing something they can't really interact with themselves? I'm guessing that they aren't actually seeing "stuff" like we do, or even really low resolution stuff.
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We don't even know what you see now. We don't know if we see the same colors the same things etc. Remember we are taught that a certain color is red. So long as what you see is consistent we both have the same name for the same color but we don't know if they look the same to both of us. In the end so long as it works that is all that really matters.
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If you think about it, what a baby learns before we can communicate with him/her is astounding. On average we have approximately 5M cones in each eye , times 3 because these send 3 signals gives 15M wires for color vision. We also have rods, approxi
Those sunglasses (Score:1)
I want one (Score:2)