[vip_students] Bionic Eye 'Enables Blind People To See'
- From: Gary Worn <garyworn@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Vip.students" <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:54:16 +0000
Bionic Eye 'Enables Blind People To See'
Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent
The implant converts images from an external camera into electronic signals
that the brain can "see".
Tests on 21 patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease that
destroys light-receiving cells at the back of the eye, showed that three
quarters were able to correctly identify single letters.
More than half were able to read four-letter words, according to results
published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Before being fitted with the device Richard Barrett only had vague light
perception in one eye.
Now he can locate objects and find his way around.
He said: "When I am indoors I can see where windows are. To go to a door you
can scan and pick up where the door frame is.
"If you have a path and grass down one side, you can pick up the edge of the
path. That's where the device comes into its own."
Lyndon da Cruz, consultant retinal surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in
London, said the Argus II device could "restore some meaningful vision in
patients that otherwise would have been left blind".
He told Sky News: "At the best end of it they can start to read small 5cm
letters formed into words. This was a huge change in perception of what we
thought this device could do."
The Argus II is currently the only approved retinal prosthesis. A camera
mounted on a pair of glasses feeds pictures along a cable to an electronic chip
resting against the retina inside the eye.
The chip stimulates the optic nerve, which carries signals to the visual
processing centre of the brain, giving the wearer a highly pixellated black and
white view of the world.
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