New Sight for the Blind
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2002-12-02 10:39:17
New Sight for the Blind
By Sandy Berger
Five national laboratories, a private company, and two universities have combined forces in the project that may allow some blind people to regain their vision within the next few years. Although it sounds Star-Trekkien, the project, funded by a $9 million, three-year grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research is for real.
The idea is to position microelectromechanical electrode chips on the retina of a blind person. The electrodes will be linked to retinal nerves that will send electrical impulses to the brain for processing, just as the eye does. A tiny camera and radio frequency transmitter positioned in the frame of a patient’s glasses will transmit information and power to electrodes in the eye. This may be a solution for more than two hundred thousand in the US who are blinded each year by age-related macular degeneration and other diseases that render a person blind even though neural paths to the brain are in tact. Because only about a thousand electrodes will be used, sight will be limited, although adequate for daily chores. (The normal eye processes millions of pixels of light.)
Researchers are optimistic that issues such as, retinal pressure, eye protein accumulation, and possible rejection of alien body matter will be resolved. If all goes well, long term studies will be in place by the end of the project.
The collaboration includes researchers at John Hopkins and North Carolina State universities, the University of Southern California, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the Sandia, Los Alamos, and Laurence Livermore Labs.
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