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Posts Tagged bionic eyes

Science!: Bionic Vision Australia Unveils Prototype Bionic Eye, See What They Did There?

Posted by mistergroonk in Science, Technology on April 16, 2010

A quick search of our archives reveals bionic eyes were always in our sights.

*ahem*

Anyway, it’s not quite seeing with your tongue. It is an achievable technology in our near future. 2013 to be precise.

The set-up includes a video camera mounted to glasses to capture images, a wireless processor to convert and send those images to the implant, and a chip with 98 electrodes that is attached to the retina. When the implant receives signals from the processor, it stimulates the optic nerve, which directs the electrical impulses from the retina to the brain’s visual center.

“We anticipate that this retinal implant will provide users with increased mobility and independence,” said Anthony Burkitt, BVA’s research director and an engineering professor at the University of Melbourne.

Next up: Scientists find a way to lick with your eyes, eat with your ears, and drink with your finger.

Oh, wait.

(via @CNETnews, engadget)

bionic, bionic eyes, live for science die for science, science it works bitches!, tech wear, wearable

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Woman given Seeing Eye-brain device, Calls herself “Robo-chick”

Posted by mistergroonk in Health, Technology on April 6, 2006

Some call her the bionic woman. Others call her a medical miracle. But Cheri Robertson has given herself another title:

“I just call myself the robo-chick.”

Robertson is blind, but this device allows her to see, not with her eyes but with her brain! Fifteen years ago, she lost both of her eyes in a car accident. She was just 19 years old.

[…]

Neurosurgeon Kenneth Smith, M.D., of Saint Louis University School of Medicine, said the procedure is the first to reverse blindness in patients without eyes. “They are really seeing. The brain is getting impulses just like when you and I see.”

A camera on the tip of Robertson’s glasses sends signals to a computer that’s strapped around her waist. The computer then stimulates electrodes in the brain through a cord that attaches to the head. Patients see flashes of light and outlines of objects.