An Eye Implant And Smart Glasses Restore Some Lost Vision

Patients wore these smart glasses that paired to a retinal implant successful their eye.

Several twelve patients regained immoderate of their imagination acknowledgment to an implant wrong their oculus paired pinch a group of smart glasses. The study was published Monday successful The New England Journal of Medicine, and researchers report that patients could spot good capable utilizing nan exertion to capable retired crossword puzzles and publication regular books again. 

The investigation focused connected patients who’ve mislaid imagination successful nan halfway of their oculus owed to a progressive shape of blindness called age-related macular degeneration. The illness cannot beryllium reversed because cells successful nan halfway of nan patients’ retinas dice complete time. The study focused connected restoring immoderate of that mislaid imagination utilizing a 2-by-2-millimeter instrumentality made of mini photovoltaic star panels. The instrumentality was surgically implanted nether nan retina successful nan patient’s eye. Patients wore camera-equipped smart glasses, which transmitted zoomed-in images of nan world to nan retinal implant utilizing adjacent infrared light. The retinal implant past pulsed mini electrical signals into nan optic nerve, mimicking what nan cells of nan retina would usually do. 

The study started disconnected pinch 38 patients who received nan retinal implant, 32 of whom stayed successful nan objective proceedings for a afloat year. At nan 1 twelvemonth mark, 26 of nan 32 participants could spot amended than erstwhile they started — an 80 percent occurrence rate. It’s not perfect; patients tin only spot a blurry imagination of nan world and only successful achromatic and white. But researchers uninvolved successful nan study called nan activity “amazing,” arsenic reported by The New York Times. 
The exertion comes from nan brain-computer interface institution Science Corporation, whose laminitis and CEO, Max Hodak, cofounded Neuralink successful 2016 pinch Elon Musk. Science Corporation acquired nan retinal implant exertion from nan French aesculapian instrumentality institution Pixium Vision successful 2024 aft it ran retired of money aft a decade of moving to create nan imagination technology, arsenic reported by IEEE Spectrum. It was a akin communicative to different well-known imagination prosthesis company, Second Sight Medical, whose abandoned technology was rescued by different aesculapian exertion startup, allowing nan clinical proceedings to continue.