Posted on 11/01/2024 8:17:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
An experimental eye implant could be the secret to restoring a patient’s central vision—the part of our eye that lets us see faces, details, and letters more clearly. Many patients now using the implant as part of a clinical trial have reported successful results.
The implant was developed by Science Corporation, a competitor to Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which Musk plans to use to merge humans and AI together. The company announced preliminary results for its latest clinical trial this week, reporting that some study participants can now see well enough to read from books, play cards, and more.
All of these successes are due to the experimental eye implant, which has restored parts of the patients’ central vision. Despite still being considered “legally blind” by medical standards, the patients are able to see more clearly now thanks to the implant, which has been dubbed “Prima".
Prima is essentially a tiny 2-mm square chip that is surgically placed under the patient’s retina. The procedure takes roughly 80 minutes to complete. The chip pairs with a pair of glasses that capture video using attached cameras. Patterns of infrared light are then beamed to the chip, which is covered with 378 light-powered pixels.
The experimental eye implant then takes the light and converts it to electrical stimulation that triggers the eye’s natural electrical pulses. This allows the eye to then send information about what the camera is seeing to the brain, allowing the patient to understand what they are looking at.
The entire idea here is for the brain to interpret the signals the chip sends as images, essentially mimicking the natural process our eyes use to see. We’ve seen other attempts to use bionic eyes to restore vision and to restore vision using stem cells. However, this could be one of the most promising techniques we’ve seen, especially since we’re already seeing massive success in human patients.
The moment we are connected to AI politicians will spam us with funding requests.
Or commercials every time you look at something it can identify and search for...
I got text spam asking for a donation from Kamala Harris’ campaign yesterday. Clearly they are complete idiots who don’t look at / cross reference campaign finance disclosures, as I gave Trump a significant multiple of what they asked for some time ago.
But yes, you are probably right. ‘Tis the season.
Does this work no matter the actual impairment that has caused the blindness, for, particularly when blindness begins at birth or infancy, it can arise by a number of different causes, resulting in different kinds of impairment. One “solution” may not fit all circumstances.
LOL - you’re probably right. And spam...
LOL! Soon...soon.
That’s an option.......................
“politicians will spam us with funding requests.”
I donated a lot to Trump this cycle. My mailbox and text messages app are deluged daily with money requests.
I donated. My phone number got passed around like a two-dollar hooker at a frat party. Never again.
“Does this work no matter the actual impairment that has caused the blindness, for, particularly when blindness begins at birth or infancy,”
No. The article refers to improving only central vision. Typical degradation due to age-related Macular Degeneration.
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