Jeffrey Olsen at the University of Colorado Hospital has invented a better solution for people with impaired vision due to damaged retinas, by using quantum dots to amplify the light that reaches the retina, using the eye’s still functioning light-sensitive cells.

Quantum dots (nanoscale semiconductor material) fluoresce when hit by photons and would have the effect of making any received retinal image brighter, with the advantages that they require no external power source, are much smaller than silicon chips, and can be coated with a bioactive material that causes them to become lodged in only specific tissues in the retina.