‘Bionic eye’ may help reverse blindness

April 1, 2005 | Source: NewScientist.com News

A 3-millimeter-wide chip designed to fit behind the retina has returned a degree of vision to blind rats, a first step towards creating a system for humans.

The patient would wear goggles mounted with a small video camera, which sends the image to a wireless wallet-sized computer for processing. The computer transmits this information to an infrared LED screen on the goggles.

The goggles reflect an infrared image into the eye and on to the retinal chip, stimulating photodiodes on the chip. The photodiodes mimic the retinal cells by converting light into electrical signals, which are then transmitted by cells in the inner retina via nerve pulses to the brain.