No rainbows, but grayscale vision for those with faulty retinas

It is always pleasing to read of progress in the field of medicine. Today's item comes from Slashdot.org.

Implant Gives Grayscale Vision To the Blind Using Lasers164

Posted by Unknown Lameron Tuesday July 17, @05:50PM
from the not-safe-for-mcdonald's dept.

MrSeb writes with a bit from Extreme Tech: "After a lot of theorizing, posturing, and non-human trials, it looks like bionic eye implants are finally hitting the market — first in Europe, and hopefully soon in the U.S. These implants can restore sight to completely blind patients — though only if the blindness is caused by a faulty retina, as in macular degeneration (which millions of old people suffer from), diabetic retinopathy, or other degenerative eye diseases. ... The Bio-Retina, developed by Nano Retina, is a whole lot more exciting. The Bio-Retina costs ... around the $60,000 [and] the 576-pixel vision-restoring sensor is actually placed inside the eye, on top of the retina. The operation only takes 30 minutes and can be performed under local anesthetic. Once installed, 576 electrodes on the back of the sensor implant themselves into your optic nerve. The best bit, though, is how the the sensor is powered: The Bio-Retina system comes with a standard pair of corrective lenses that are modified so that they can fire a near-infrared laser beam through your iris to the sensor at the back of your eye. On the sensor there is a photovoltaic cell that produces up to three milliwatts — not a lot, but more than enough."

Comments

[Ole Phat Stu]

I assure you it is mere coincidence that we both blogged about seeing 50 shades of grey ;-)

[Cop Car]

Stu--Yeah, yeah, so you say, you cheeky lad. At first, I inferred the incorrect predecessor to your comment. Then, I saw that you had posted a bit just for me. Thank you (I think!), kind sir.