Restoring Eyesight Through Self-Powered Bionic Eyes

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA, USA AND UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM. A self-powered bionic eye that can restore the eyesight of older adults with severe or limited eyesight. The device is better when compared with other retinal implants since it is photovoltaic. This means that the battery-powered setup does not require any complicated surgery.

People who are in their fifties are prone to experiencing age-related macular degeneration diseases. When it concerns the eye, it usually damages the most sensitive part of the retina which is at the back of it. When severely affected, the objects become blurry that it comes to a point that a person has difficulties recognizing images, faces, reading texts or even driving a car.

Implants concerning the retina require complex surgeries and they are actually bulky. This led to the research from the University of Strathclyde and Stanford University. They were able to create a prosthetic chip from silicon that is thin. It can electrically stimulate neurons in the retina. The device is photovoltaic so it does not require complex surgical procedures.

The artificial device works with video glasses that record images and project the captured images onto the eye. The visual perception occurs when the retina is stimulated, The stimulation is produced when the video glasses beam infrared light onto the retinal chip that creates electrical signal that passes on to the nerves. Surgeons only need to create a small pocket beneath the retina so that they can slip the photovoltaic cells inside it.

Laser eye surgery has shown a lot of promise and provided great results already. In the near future, once this device is perfected, growing old and losing one’s eyesight can be easily remedied with the use of bionic eyes.