Scientists help blind man see again with worlds first bionic eye!! (amazing videos!!)

www.channel4.com

In a major breakthrough for the blind, scientists have restored a man's sight with a "bionic eye" for the first time ever, reports Science Correspondent Julian Rush.

Miikka Tertho, from Finland, inherited the disease retinitis pigmentosa, a common degenerative disorder that affects some 200,000 people around the world. At 24, he started to lose his sight. Now 46, he is registered blind.

For three months, Miikka was one of eleven patients testing the retinal implant built by Prof. Dr. Eberhart Zrenner of Tuebingen University in Germany. The 1500 pixel chip, similar to that found in a digital camera, was implanted behind the retina of his left eye where it effectively replaced the light receptors lost as a result of the degenerative disease.

Electrodes on the back of the tiny 3x3mm2 chip passed pulsed signals to his optic nerve that varied according to the amount of light falling on the chip. Previous experiments to restore sight in this way have used a bulky external camera; this is the first time an implanted "bionic eye" has been shown to work successfully.

The first trials on UK patients are expected to start in London and Oxford in 2011.

Source: Scientists help blind man to see again
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The implant is placed at the back of the eye allowing men and women who thought they would never be able to see again to read the hands of a clock and identify everyday objects.

One man saw his girlfriend’s smile for the first time, while another was able to read his own name.
It is thought the device could even work in certain cases of blindness from birth.

Video footage released by the Royal Society shows patient Mr Terho from Finland studying an apple and a banana.

'This one on the right looks longer and is curving,' he told scientists looking on.

'It could be a banana,' he adds, causing the team to break out in spontaneous applause.

Source: The amazing bionic eye that lets the blind see with the help of a microchip


Hmm maybe I should have posed this in the Breaking News section...anyway this is an excellent story 'Worlds First Real Bionic Eye', medical science has come along way in just 10 years. And the first public trails to start as soon as 2011.

Maybe in 5-10 years I can have them bionic legs I've always been after.

This is pretty amazing. Imagine how emotional that guy must feel, being able to see again after so many years.

Only question I have is, how limited is this 'bionic eye'? Is he able to see colours and details? Or just the shape of objects?

Wow thanks for the news Star and Flag. I have been waiting for something like this to be available for a long time. I am legally blind, but losing vision by the year by the same retinitis Pigmentosa mentioned. Amazing how a little chip can be so powerful. So do you know if most cases only led to basic vision functions such as black and white or could they see color? Either way by the time I go completely blind atleast I know that I can get back the same grade of vision I had. Although I would imagine by the time I go totally blind at the rate technology is going these days, they will have a full cure for blindness. Thanks alot, this made my day.

reply to post by splittheatom

Originally posted by splittheatom
Only question I have is, how limited is this 'bionic eye'? Is he able to see colours and details? Or just the shape of objects?

I've tried to find out as much information as possible about this question...all I can find out is that the patients vision gradually returns, allowing them to see loved-ones smiles and recognise people upto 20 feet away. This to me says they can see in detail, if you think about all the visual information needed for facial recognition then I would say it's a safe bet.

As for seeing in colour, unfortunatley I can't find any information on that, although he does recognise different fruit this could be purely based on the shapes.

Researcher Dr Eberhart Zrenner, founder of Retina Implants, said: ‘One young patient told me how he looked at his girlfriend and saw her smiling. Another patient was sitting in her garden and suddenly discovered a sunflower outlined against the sky.

‘One saw bugs moving across the grass. Another looked up at the sky and saw the white line left by an aeroplane. It gives them back not only mobility but also pleasure.’

Professor MacLaren, who plans to start testing the device in Britain early next year, described the results as ‘quite astonishing’. The consultant eye surgeon said: ‘Up until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction.

‘The level of vision is rudimentary, but we’re talking about making someone who is completely blind see well enough to walk around without a guide dog.’

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

UPDATE: I've been digging alittle deeper and...unfortunately colours are not recognisable only shades of black and white. But hey this is still a remarkable technological advancement in medical science

Finally, i fully support this! It's about time that nature got showed who's the boss.
Why should someone suffer if they were born genetically with poor eyesight?

Now this is great news....how many times have you seen a blind person walking by and you are angered that with all the technology we can't come up with something...we can see through walls, make planes cruise at supersonic speed and we can put up to 30 gigs if not more on a memory chip the size of your pinky nail but this apparently was not a big priority in the US..and why? Because there are only so many blind people..not enough money to be made from it I guess. This is a great technological moment my friends...

A few generations of development and they'll outdo Geordi La Forge.

Fantastic!!

One of the reasons I come back to ATS is for threads like this! I've got to say, we are on the brink of some incredible breakthroughs. This is just the beginning of a cure for this type of blindness and many millions around the world will eventually be able to see the world with 20/20 vision thanks to this new technology.

I still can't believe folks are not looking into this link...had the link said slim jims, redbull, acne and porn leads to blindness you would have the record amount of views in ATS history...people love the doom and gloom but like to skip on reality...

Excellent news, hopefully this technology will accelerate at the same rate that camera tech has, we'll be having 12 and 15 mega pixel bionic eyes in coming years.

Wow think of the implications and applications just some examples, night vision, infra red, 20 digital zoom lol we'll even be able to zoom in and take a screen shot of the hottie across the street lol.

Exciting times we live in.

I'm not sure they are really going about this the right way with using bionics to repair vision. I highly doubt they will be able to achieve something that could replace an eye completely, which would give the same vision as a normal eye. I think the way to go would be in genetic cloning, or some kind of advanced regeneration. Sure for now it will suffice, but the future of restoring vision should be in these areas and not bionics.

I am permanently blind in my left eye so I hope they can one day restore people's vision completely. Although for me to have one bionic eye and one normal, it wouldn't really work at least not with anything they have at the moment. Can you imagine seeing through 2 eyes but each eye producing a slightly different image? Like for example how the man in the video perceived things slightly further away. The bionic eye would have to be absolutely perfect, with no differences from normal sight.