Most developments using bionic vision are based on the use of much existing human visual system in the patient, as without it, today it is impossible to restore sight. But this could be left behind in the coming months, thanks to a newly developed bionic eye that does not require much of the visual system.
A new system developed by Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Australia, uses a system of glasses, contact lenses can also be if the patient still has eyeball, with integrated camera that connects directly to the brain to perceive images.
Eyes that are not eyes but offer vision
Arthur Lowery, project leader, explained that this system consists of 11 small plates, each equipped with 43 electrodes, where each is implanted in the brain areas that are responsible for vision. By encouraging each of these areas, the person is able to see small flashes of light, the idea is that each electrode with a point of light, similar to a pixel in an image, which can be thought to image almost 500 pixels of resolution in the brain directly. These 500 pixels are enough to create a single image, and certainly not compared to the more than two million pixels that the human eye can capture.
Images are captured by a digital camera and sent to a processor pocket, which is connected to the plates. Both the camera and the processor may be a separate device, or they can be installed on a pair of glasses, which is the main idea while the idea of mounting on lenses is still a prototype at a very early stage of development.
This system can only be used by people who previously had the ability to see, but lost sight in an accident or illness, since the watch under a resolution of 500 pixels, it is not recommended for people who have never ever seen, because here you do not have a history between images and concepts.
But undoubtedly the most important achievement of this development is that it does not require a human visual system, so that the patient can access it without having to wait for a donor, everything will easily without complicated surgeries.
We are nearly end of this article about bionic eye, however we have to wait for that reality to 2016, but now we recommend you another article of duckysdesktop: nine gadgets that cost very little and you get a lot from them, you can purchase in the end of 2015.
In 2016 the first volunteers begin to test the system in Australia, where researchers mention that these patients wake up with a feeling of “harsh view” as if they were watching the first television of 1925. One of the great advantages of this kind of development it is that it can be updated, as researchers are already working on a system of higher resolution than can be implanted later in the first volunteers.