I love this Buck Rogers blue-sky stuff. Soon we’ll have completely implantable artificial eyes. This is the one time I’d rather not be an early adopter, although I give massive props to those who participate. We need this kind of public testing before releasing an implantable device on the market.
US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients.
The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye.
Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement.
Wicked cool, especially if you’re one of the people this technology helps.
Related Links:
Licking the visibility problem
Woman regains sense of touch using advanced prosthetic technology
Think I’ll wait for a set of Nikon’s a la William Gibson thanks.
Well, if I couldn’t see, I’ld be all over this experimental device.
Don
So when are they going to get implants that are better then 20/20 vision?
At this rate I’ll be able to get implants that just tie directly into my computer so haveing a monitor would be worthless.
heck, you could do away with your PC altogether. Just use your smartphone bluetooth connected to your eyes.
I describe a cranial computing system in my book Cyberchild.
[/shameless plug]
Speaking as someone with nonsymmetrical macular degeneration (that means I have it in one eye only – probably caused or at least started by an injury) I gotta say this is fascinating tech to me.
Of course, five or six years ago an ophthalmologist told me to expect the other eye to follow within a year. I did quite a bit of research, started taking large doses of Vit. E among other things, and my remaining vision is stable. Doctors don’t know everything.
But to get usable stereoscopic vision back – now that’s a fine dream. Plus such an implant would qualify one as a cyborg, wouldn’t it? I always wanted to be a cyborg. You know, the evil kind, not the good kind. But with stereoscopic vision.
And a dark gutural low voice too….
“Luke, the force is strong within you…”
ehhhh, let’s face it, James Earl Jones’s voice it’s sooo perfect…
Geordi LaForge’s Visor is one step closer to reality..
The eyes, the ears, other interesting organs and/or appendages; if I last just another few years and Hillary wins in 08 the government will just hook my brain up to a new body, for free.
Does this open up the options of having more than 2 eyes?
10,
Thanks for asking, great question. It reminded me that these bionic techologies are inter-related and can be complementary.
I added links above to two very important related articles, one about an alternative presence-awareness technology and one about advanced prostheses. In each, operators were able to integrate the electronic signals from the device and interpret them as sensory input.
The most interesting thing is that in the tongue-vision technology sighted people were able to interpret and use the data as an additional layer of perception.
This is augmentation of the same viewpoint, I do not know how well this would function if you attempted to look in one direction and direct the presence sensor in another, or from a remote location. Would your brain be able to reconcile the two different viewpoints?
#10 & 11,
Wow, I was thinking the same thing. Look for the military to hardwire soldiers with a third eye.
Knowing a wall-eyed man, I asked my eye doctor how they could see. He explained that their brain tunes out one eye so the brain isn’t overloaded with sensory information. I do think this could be overcome with training.
A greater question would be how much of any of this will be available in our lifetimes. Once they figure out how to tap into the nerve trunks, prosthetics will be amazing.
#6, TJ,
I wish you the best with your condition. Losing my eyesight scares the crap out of me.
12 – Thanks for the good wishes. Appreciated.
About the walleyed man – macular degeneration hits only the macula, where the cones are densely located, but leaves the rods alone. So peripheral vision remains intact. In my case, over a period of about three months after the damage occurred, my brain “rewired” its visual inputs so the cone-blinded eye now tracks to the outside. It gives me a walleyed look, but the result is that I actually do retain some useful stereoscopic vision – in fact, I can sense depth pretty accurately for large objects. So my brain isn’t blocking out extra data, but rather is adapting to its new inputs to maximize the useful info available. It now takes a conscious effort to train the cone-blind eye to center with my good eye. In subjective terms, it feels like I’m crossing my eyes when I do that.
If by chance I got one of these vision implants, I wonder how my brain would adapt to the new inputs. All I can say based on personal experience is that the process likely would take around 90 days to stabilize, and I suspect that would be true of anyone getting these implants. The adaptation process cannot possibly be a simple one.
I want an infrared eye or x-ray vision. I’m guessing that it’ll be possible with this technology.
on top of the IR or xray ideas, I’d want an SD slot to store some images on!