We keeping inching closer to bionic eyes. From Jeepers Creepers, Bionic Peepers:
Artificial retinas have been successfully implanted in six patients, allowing them to see light and detect motion, researchers announced at the 2005 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.Developed by researchers from the University of Southern California and the Doheny Eye Institute, the artificial retina pairs a tiny electronic eye implant with a video camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses.
The implant, a four-by-four grid of electrodes, connects to damaged photoreceptors — rods and cones — on the patient’s retina. The electrodes stimulate the photoreceptors, which transmit signals to the brain through the optic nerve.
Signals from the sunglasses-mounted videocam take a rather circuitous route to the electrodes. The camera translates the field of view into electrical impulses that are transmitted wirelessly to a microchip located behind the ear. In turn, the microchip is connected to the retinal implant by wires under the skin.
The system — known as the Argus, after the mythological Greek god who had 100 eyes — works only with patients with degenerated rods and cones, a condition often caused by disease. It will not help people with damaged optic nerves or other types of blindness.
The implant is a four-by-four grid of electrodes. Perhaps they should save the name “Argus” for when they get up to a ten-by-ten grid:
Humayun said he hopes to begin testing a 60-electrode model of the Argus by late 2005.Humayun said the Argus 60′s microchip will be one-quarter the size of the current model, and should offer a significant improvement.