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Bionic Eye

This New Bionic Eye Could One Day Give Blind People 20/20 Vision

A bionic eye could restore sight to the blind and greatly improve robotic vision, but current visual sensors are a long way from the impressive attributes of nature’s design. Now researchers have found a way to mimic its structure and create an artificial eye that reproduces many of its capabilities.

A key part of what makes the eye’s design so powerful is its shape, but this is also one of the hardest things to mimic. The concave shape of the retina—the photoreceptor-laden layer of tissue at the back of the eye—makes it possible to pick up much more light as it passes through the curved lens than it would pick up if it was flat. But replicating this curved sensor array has proven difficult. read more

This bionic Eye System Restored Vision in Clinical Trials

There are currently clinical trials of smart glasses designed to help vision impaired people to see and read letters again in the United States.

The “bionic eye” technology is made by a Paris-based biotech firm called Pixium Vision. It consists of a visor-like pair of glasses featuring an embedded camera. Images captured by the camera are beamed to a microchip implanted in the wearer’s retina. This signal is then converted into electrical signals that can be understood by the brain.

Participants in the trial had no central vision prior to the microchips being implanted. One year after the chips were implanted, the majority have regained the ability to read to some extent. Some can read only individual letters, while others are able to read sequences of letters. The image created by the implant is just 378 pixels in total. While this is far from restoring a person’s vision to 20/20, it nonetheless represents a significant improvement. read more

This Bionic Eye Could Be Implanted in Humans Next Year

Scientists are a step closer to creating a bionic eye which could help millions of blind people to see using a microchip implanted in the retina and a pair of glasses.

The Phoenix99 bionic vision system consists of a camera, attached to glasses, which transmits high-frequency signals to a microchip implanted in the retina. Electrodes on the chip convert these signals into electrical impulses to stimulate cells in the retina that connect to the optic nerve. These impulses are then passed along the optic nerve and are interpreted as an image in the brain. read more

3D Printed Bionic Eye Could One Day Restore Sight for the Blind

Researchers have used 3D printing technologies to create light receptors on a hemispherical surface which could pave the way for future bionic eyes.

Academics from the US University of Minnesota said the invention is a “significant step” towards the creation of synthetic eyes which could either restore sight for the blind or improve levels of sight for the visually impaired.

3D printing on straight, flat surfaces is common, but attempting to print delicate components reliably on curved surfaces represents a challenge. The team began their journey with a hemispherical glass dome, which approximates the spherical surface of organic eyes. read more

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