Bionic Eye to Help People Overcome Common Forms of Blindness

People with some most common forms of blindness can now have their eyesight restored with the bionic eye that scientists are developing. It is a tiny implant that works like a digital camera and mimics the action of the retina.

The retina is the lining at the back of the eye that converts light into signals to the brain. The implant translates light into electrical impulses and stimulates the retina, fooling the brain into believing that the damaged eye is functional.

The implant was tested on animal retina cells. Researchers hope to help people combat age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa which are some most common forms of blindness. Both are types of blindness that involve malfunctioning of the retina and affect around one million people in Britain alone.

According to one of the researchers, Keith Mathieson, though the prototype had merely 100 pixels, the implant would require at least 500 pixels to allow users to move around and recognize faces. “We are between five and ten years from the first human implants, so people should not get too excited too early. It is still essentially a research theme, but we are making advances,” he said.

Advances in microelectronics paved way for researchers to develop the “retinal prosthesis”, a small device to be implanted on the retina, according to Dr. Mathieson. He is working with James Morrison from Glasgow University and Mark Prydderch of the Council for the Central laboratory of the Research Councils.

The device functions with the help of an imaging detector with hundreds of pixels coupled to microscopic stimulating electrodes. When light forms an image on the detector, it results in electrical stimulation of the retina in the shape of the image. The information is sent to the brain through the optic nerve. The imaging part of the system is similar to technology in a digital camera.

Source: Times Online