US scientists have designed a bionic eye to allow blind people to see again. It comprises a computer chip that sits in the back of the individual’s eye, linked up to a mini video camera built into glasses that they wear. Images captured by the camera are beamed to the chip, which translates them into impulses that the brain can interpret. The device has been designed by Professor Gislin Dagnelie at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. This is a revolutionary piece of technology and really has the potential to change people’s lives Anita Lifestone of the Royal National Institute for the Blind Professor Dagnelie unveiled details at a Royal National Institute for the Blind conference in London on Monday. Human trials will begin within a year, hopes Professor Dagnelie. Although the images produced by the artificial eye are far from perfect, they could be clear enough to allow someone who is otherwise blind to recognise faces, he said. The breakthrough is likely to benefit patients with the most common cause of blindness, macular degeneration, which affects 500,000 people in the UK. This occurs when there is damage to the macular, which is in the central part of the retina where light is focussed and changed into nerve signals in the middle of the brain. The implant bypasses the diseased cells in the retina and stimulates the remaining viable cells.
