Second Sight

Tina sent me an email about what they are doing to restore sight in blind people. Amazing! I'm excerpting her email. Unfortunately, she didn't send the link, only the paragraphs she thought were important. (And I'm only giving you the one's I found important!)

Eye Chip For The Blind Likely In Next 10 Years

Advances in technology may enable scientists to develop an implantable eye "chip" to treat some types of blindness within the next 10 to 20 years, Johns Hopkins researchers said a Baltimore press conference on December 8. The briefing was spurred by recent media reports that musician Stevie Wonder was considering getting the "eye chip" to restore his sight. The researcher explained that the device works by stimulating a small area of the retina electrically by passing electric current into the eye, kind of like the way a pacemaker would stimulate the heart to beat. The brain then interprets that neural activity of the retina as vision, as light sensation.

There is significant proof of concept in the sense of patients being able to see at least in short periods of time things like letters and forms like boxes. We think that what we have to do now is solve the problem of putting it in the eye over a long period of time. Candidates for the chip include those with diseases of the retina, such as macular degeneration or retinal pigmentosa. This would include 2 million people in the US. To date, the longest a chip has been implanted in a patient is about 45 minutes to one hour. The obstacles to overcome include the development of heat and avoiding damage to the computer chip from salts in the eye fluids. Researchers know that on a temporary basis that they can stimulate the retina, but they don't know over a long period of time if the amount of energy that will be required or if they will be able to be tolerated in a patient's eye.