A man’s sight is his biggest treasure.
Imagine a person who has lost his
eye-sightin an accident, how his
world is a never ending mystery he
wishes to unlock? While a man who
has his vision restored finds even
mundane sights beautiful and finds
life ever so new and exciting. Such is
the state of one of the nine(9)
patients who have been fitted with
an Alpha IMS device, which is a form of
retinal prosthesis having capability to
restore sight to blind people.
These devices are fitted in patients
who have lost their vision through
diseases suchas retinitis pigmentosa
that destroy the light-detecting cells
in the eye but leave thevision-proce
ssing neurons intact. A chip is
implanted in brain from which wires
run to the retina. Also, there is a dial
behind the ear that can be used to
adjust brightness. Power to the
device is provided via a battery kept
in the pocket.
Image Source: kurzweilai.net Earlier,
Clinical Trials were run on Argus II,
another visual prosthesis. The Argus II
was approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) only a few
weeks back. This device has been
adapted to let blind people read
Braille by sight rather than touch.
However, the Argus II works very
differently, it converts video from a
camera on a pair of glasses into
electronic signals "displayed" on a
grid of 60 electrodes implanted over a
person's retina.
On the other hand, the Alpha IMS
detects light entering the eye instead
of using an external camera, which
means that a patient can look around
by moving their eyes rather than
always having to move their head. A
grid of 1500 electrodes are implanted
underneath. It also makes use of the
natural processing power of the
neurons in the middle layer of the
retina that process motion and
contrast.
Imagine a person who has lost his
eye-sightin an accident, how his
world is a never ending mystery he
wishes to unlock? While a man who
has his vision restored finds even
mundane sights beautiful and finds
life ever so new and exciting. Such is
the state of one of the nine(9)
patients who have been fitted with
an Alpha IMS device, which is a form of
retinal prosthesis having capability to
restore sight to blind people.
These devices are fitted in patients
who have lost their vision through
diseases suchas retinitis pigmentosa
that destroy the light-detecting cells
in the eye but leave thevision-proce
ssing neurons intact. A chip is
implanted in brain from which wires
run to the retina. Also, there is a dial
behind the ear that can be used to
adjust brightness. Power to the
device is provided via a battery kept
in the pocket.
Image Source: kurzweilai.net Earlier,
Clinical Trials were run on Argus II,
another visual prosthesis. The Argus II
was approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) only a few
weeks back. This device has been
adapted to let blind people read
Braille by sight rather than touch.
However, the Argus II works very
differently, it converts video from a
camera on a pair of glasses into
electronic signals "displayed" on a
grid of 60 electrodes implanted over a
person's retina.
On the other hand, the Alpha IMS
detects light entering the eye instead
of using an external camera, which
means that a patient can look around
by moving their eyes rather than
always having to move their head. A
grid of 1500 electrodes are implanted
underneath. It also makes use of the
natural processing power of the
neurons in the middle layer of the
retina that process motion and
contrast.