A New Implant For Blind People Jacks Directly Into the Brain (technologyreview.com) 30
Researchers have successfully bypassed the eyes with a brain implant that allows rudimentary vision. MIT Technology Review reports: "Alli," says Bernardeta Gomez in her native Spanish, pointing to a large black line running across a white sheet of cardboard propped at arm's length in front of her. "There." It isn't exactly an impressive feat for a 57-year-old woman -- except that Gomez is blind. And she's been that way for over a decade. When she was 42, toxic optic neuropathy destroyed the bundles of nerves that connect Gomez's eyes to her brain, rendering her totally without sight. She's unable even to detect light. But after 16 years of darkness, Gomez was given a six-month window during which she could see a very low-resolution semblance of the world represented by glowing white-yellow dots and shapes. This was possible thanks to a modified pair of glasses, blacked out and fitted with a tiny camera. The contraption is hooked up to a computer that processes a live video feed, turning it into electronic signals. A cable suspended from the ceiling links the system to a port embedded in the back of Gomez's skull that is wired to a 100-electrode implant in the visual cortex in the rear of her brain.
Using this, Gomez identified ceiling lights, letters, basic shapes printed on paper, and people. She even played a simple Pac-Man-like computer game piped directly into her brain. Four days a week for the duration of the experiment, Gomez was led to a lab by her sighted husband and hooked into the system. Gomez's first moment of sight, at the end of 2018, was the culmination of decades of research by Eduardo Fernandez, director of neuroengineering at the University of Miguel Hernandez, in Elche, Spain. His goal: to return sight to as many as possible of the 36 million blind people worldwide who wish to see again. Fernandez's approach is particularly exciting because it bypasses the eye and optical nerves.
Using this, Gomez identified ceiling lights, letters, basic shapes printed on paper, and people. She even played a simple Pac-Man-like computer game piped directly into her brain. Four days a week for the duration of the experiment, Gomez was led to a lab by her sighted husband and hooked into the system. Gomez's first moment of sight, at the end of 2018, was the culmination of decades of research by Eduardo Fernandez, director of neuroengineering at the University of Miguel Hernandez, in Elche, Spain. His goal: to return sight to as many as possible of the 36 million blind people worldwide who wish to see again. Fernandez's approach is particularly exciting because it bypasses the eye and optical nerves.
My question is (Score:2)
Does the device look like a Fram air filter?
Just wait (Score:3, Funny)
Just wait until Zuck gets his dirty mitts on that and Jacks their visual system directly into Facebook. "What can you see?" "Only a bunch of political disinformation and cat pictures".
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"Rudimentary vision" (Score:2)
That's what I use at a smoky bar, after two whiskeys, to locate my next ex.
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Naw, OP said 'two whiskeys'. If it only takes two then you probably just put the Mountain Dew down long enough to do a couple of shots - sounds very slashdot to me.
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"A cable suspended from the ceiling links the system to a port embedded in the back of Gómez’s skull. Fernandez's approach is particularly exciting because it bypasses the eye and optical nerves"
That is pretty amazing.
A truly eye-opening technology.
That's nothing new... (Score:1, Funny)
Jack (Score:2)
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But I got two queens, an ace, six and nine.
Nothing new about this (Score:5, Interesting)
Brain implants have been tried for decades. I designed the 2 usec "bihasic pulse" electronics for neural implants back in the 1990's, to localize the signals and even create "ghost electrodes" bu pulsing signals near each other. These were part of the only functional MRI scans done of cochlear implants, because the systems had a jack that sticks out of the head that could safely be put inside an MRI and stimulated.
Until and unless the complex digital transcivers, which aggregates and massively undersample the original signals, are discarded and much more time-responsive systems without the phase lag are ued, it's not going to work for reading ordinary text. Besides the timing issues, for spatial resolution of the signals there are electrode size isues. The smaller the electrode, the smaller the set of nerves triggered, but the more the resistance and the higher current density. Eventually you either overheat the electronics of the implant in contact with human tissue, or you get electrolysis around the electrodes, which is.... well, it's not good for the brain in question. There have been some interesting gold-plated holes drilled through chip silicon experiments, but the experiments cut the nerves and put the implant in the middle to let nerves go back through the implant, and they never did try *reading* signals from the system nor did they succeed in transmitting anything useful.
It's been some years, they might have gotten better at the implants. But a few years ago they were still using equipment I built, personally, in the 1990's, so I suspect not.
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How much current could it take to drive nerves in the brain? Semiconductors now use 1.1V for low-voltage applications, low-power, etc.. Of course, semiconductor ICs are designed entirely around those operating conditions, and a 5v CPU will not run on 1.1V. It's possible your brain simply can't take a 1V pulse or a microvolt pulse at low current.
Re: Nothing new about this (Score:1)
Electrode lifetime? (Score:5, Interesting)
Because while this does sound impressive, that is the real problem: Implanted brain electrodes have very short lifetimes and have to be taken out again or stop working within a year or so. And that is after maybe half a century of research into the question. Is this one any better?
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As far as I understand, a CI is different, as the electrodes sort-of rest on "skin". The VCI is a "wet" implant in contrast and hence different. I am not an MD, I may be wrong about that.
This gives me hope (Score:2)
New form of torture? (Score:1)
Imagine being able to stream whatever images you wanted into someone's head and them having no way of looking away!
Cool. We're halfway to wireheads (Score:3)
Also, at least once in GitS they had someone rewriting Gato's visual feed in real time who suddenly could see everything but his suspect. A million years off, I know; but slightly becoming less every day.