'Bionic Eye' May Help Blind See: Retinal Prosthesis Shown To Restore Partial Vision
Research supported by the National Eye Institute has created a new artificial retina, an array of electrodes implanted on the back of the eye. More than two million Americans suffer from eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. With these diseases, patients slowly lose their vision as the nerve cells that detect light are destroyed, due to either age or illness, and there is no known cure.
This new implant has been found to restore partial vision to totally blind people. Results have been promising, and in a study focused on 15 blind participants who had the implant for at least three months, 1o of the patients tested were able to identify the direction of moving objects. In the cases involving retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, researchers worked around the destroyed cells. Each participant was given a pair of glasses with a small video camera mounted on it, and a belt with a tiny computer attached. The computer processed video images from the camera and transmitted the data to the implanted electrodes on the retina. When the users looked at a monitor with a white bar sweeping across a black screen, the electrodes that corresponded with the moving bar stimulated cells in the eye, creating spots of lights in their fields of vision. Most of the study participants were better able to determine the direction of the bar when using the prosthesis system than without it. This new system gave most blind people the ability to identify an object's direction of motion, something they could not do without it.
This article interested me because I know quite a few blind people from working with a special needs and disabilities group. With the improvement and advancements of this implant system, many of the disabled people that I have come to know, have the chance of being able to partially see, and hopefully in the future, gain their full eyesight back!
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/release/2009/10/091021012847.htm
Katherine Wright
VTPP 434-502
This new implant has been found to restore partial vision to totally blind people. Results have been promising, and in a study focused on 15 blind participants who had the implant for at least three months, 1o of the patients tested were able to identify the direction of moving objects. In the cases involving retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, researchers worked around the destroyed cells. Each participant was given a pair of glasses with a small video camera mounted on it, and a belt with a tiny computer attached. The computer processed video images from the camera and transmitted the data to the implanted electrodes on the retina. When the users looked at a monitor with a white bar sweeping across a black screen, the electrodes that corresponded with the moving bar stimulated cells in the eye, creating spots of lights in their fields of vision. Most of the study participants were better able to determine the direction of the bar when using the prosthesis system than without it. This new system gave most blind people the ability to identify an object's direction of motion, something they could not do without it.
This article interested me because I know quite a few blind people from working with a special needs and disabilities group. With the improvement and advancements of this implant system, many of the disabled people that I have come to know, have the chance of being able to partially see, and hopefully in the future, gain their full eyesight back!
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/release/2009/10/091021012847.htm
Katherine Wright
VTPP 434-502
posted by Katherine.Wright at 8:38 PM
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