Bionic Retinas Give Patients Sight

The Noof writes " Yahoo News is running a story about patients who have been given partial sight thanks to implants of silicon-based bionic retinas. " The article notes that the implant is having a "rescue effect" on the other components of the retina, restoring cells around the implant and making them useful again." Amazing stuff.

question

[CmdrSanity]

So I guess the most obvious question is: how long before the bionic retina is better than the real thing and would you get one?

Neat stuff.

That's just great. Really.

[dlek]

It's nice to see technology that really improves people's lives, instead of possibly giving slight and ambiguous gains to their productivity or make it that much easier to send 10-word messages to other people within urban areas. I like advancements in 3d vid cards and such as much as the next guy, but this is what technology's really all about. Helping the blind see again? Excellent. I'd give back the Internet if it would find us a cure for cancer.

Re:Was I the only one...?

[JPawloski]

This is definitely cool stuff. Another step closer to cyborgs. :)

They only mention that this has been tested on people that have lost their vision - wonder if it'd do anything for people born blind?

I'd like to see more science articles like this on the front page of slashdot!

Re:Only for those who lost their sight

[Karen_Frito]

Perhaps not blind adults who lost sight as children -- but if this technology is developing sucessfully today ...

Children NOW who lose their sight may never BECOME adults who lost their sight as children.

Lose sight at 5, get chip at 6, return to normal life. (Extremly abridged version, minus all the "Learn to see again" stuff.)

This is a wonderful innovation - even if its not for everyone, its a start. And everything has to start somewhere.

Reporting from ARVO

[BWJones]

OK, I am one of the scientists here at ARVO (Association for Research and Vision in Ophthalmology), and was present at the presentation of Dr. Chow.

I for one would love to believe in the results, but I have not seen any real scientific proof that these things work as advertised. While the video of patients was impressive and touching, there is very little hard science behind the development of the bionic retina and how it is integrating into the retinal environment. The only thing that everyone appears to be reporting on is that the chip is not rejected. And there are other more fundamental issues at work. For one, the silicon retinas require the equivalent of 3X's the brightness of the sun to activate the device and for realistic performace, they would require an external power source. The other issue is that the retinal circuitry that they are placing this bionic implant onto is severely degenerated and remodeled in these patients and may continue to degenerate further, thus complicating matters. That said, there is some indication that the surgery itself may cause some retinal rescue, not the implant. This is something they have not done control experiments on. Furthermore, the generation of low voltage current from the implant in the retina may be promoting retinal recovery of sorts while the silicon retina may not be doing anything for vision itself.

We are still a looooong ways away from the idea of a bionic retina and I think that retinal implants will actually be the least effective method in the long run. Gene therapy, viral infective methods, stem cells, and post retinal bionics will probably work optimally sooner.

Re:Was I the only one...?

[Egonis]

In theory... wouldn't stem cells help with that?
They can re-attach a rat's spinal cord.... why not an optic nerve?

There are a magnitude of congenital vision defects, ranging from retinal damage, internal eye pressure problems, optic nerve problems.. but the strangest to date I have encountered is Congenital Anomaly (the absense of eyes as a result of oxygen treatment as an infant)

Sobering Thoughts

[hyrdra]

Isn't amazing how fast technology moves? Remember Jordy from Star Trek? He used that big visor thing to restore his vision, and this is what writers thought would be the technology in the 24th century. Here we are in 2002, and we have a solar powered eye chip that can be implanted into the eye to give people some of their sight back, with no discomfort.

Sure, it isn't perfect and it's only version .1 but as others have mentioned how long before this changes and version 4.0 is out with default 20/15 vision and zoom controls?

Just step back and realize what an accomplishment this is and how fast technology changes everyday. It's almost scary to think what life will be like when I turn 60.

Reminds me of something my Great Grandfather said: "I've seen the world come from stage coach to walking on the moon; nobody will ever lead that kind of life again."

Well if this is the case I would think the rate of progression will disprove this. It's amazing to think we will all outlive the advancements that occured during his lifetime, but we probably will.

This article just reaffirms that notion.