[nfb-talk] Bionic Eye

[Aaron Cannon]

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Hi.  I'm sorry I wasn't more clear.  Too often I forget that email doesn't
adequately communicate sarcasm.

I was poking fun at the implication that blind people can't get around by
them selves.

I agree that no one should get too excited about this news, whether their
particular condition could potentially be helped by this technology or not.
However, I do think it is an interesting area of research and look forward
to seeing how things developed.

Again, sorry for the confusion, and thanks for a well thought out reply.

Aaron


- --
Skype: cannona
MSN/Windows Messenger: cannona at hotmail.com (don't send email to the hotmail
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- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:33 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Bionic Eye


Aaron,

I tend to believe that something like this probably will help some people,
but I also think there is reason to be a little
reserved in our responses as well.  If I understand this article correctly,
even 64 electrodes is not going to provide much
detail, so the device that might provide some very useful artificial vision
sounds as though it is perhaps a decade away.
Also, those of us whose optical nerve is messed up probably won't be helped,
and the jury is still out on what kind of
retraining of the visual center of the brain can be done.  This won't be an
issue for those who have recently lost vision,
though, and that is a sizeable part of the population.

On the other hand, I have been hearing of systems that allow the reading of
large letters and visual recognition of braille
for over twenty years now, and nothing seems to have happened as quickly as
newspaper articles claim they will.
Technology is such that it probably will happen, look at the reader, but how
well they work and when it happens is
probably far from certain.

Aaron, what did you mean about not getting around by yourself?  If you are
referring to transportation, I can understand
that, but if you have other questions about getting around by yourself by
all means ask.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:49:08 -0600, Aaron Cannon wrote:

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>"The ultimate aim is to allow people recognize faces, and to allow the
>completely blind to get around on their own,"

>That will be incredible!  I can't wait to be able to get around on my own,
>because I sure can't do that now.

>Seriously though, the technology is interesting.  I just wish they didn't
>hold them selves out as the last hope of the hopeless blind.

>Aaron


>- --
>Skype: cannona
>MSN/Windows Messenger: cannona at hotmail.com (don't send email to the hotmail
>address.)
>- ----- Original Message -----
>From: "RyanO" <rosentowski at neb.rr.com>
>To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:34 AM
>Subject: [nfb-talk] Bionic Eye


>>From the U.K. Science-Times:

>February 17, 2007

>Bionic eye restores sight to the blind

>Mark Henderson, Science Editor, in San Francisco

>A bionic eye that can restore sight to the blind should be available
>commercially within two years, scientists behind the revolutionary
>technology announced
>yesterday.

>The artificial retina has been cleared by US regulators to begin trials on
>between 50 and 75 people suffering from two of the most common causes of
>blindness,
>opening the way for millions more to benefit from similar implants in the
>future.

>If the research progresses well, a device could be on the market early in
>2009 at a likely cost of about £15,000, said Mark Humayun, Professor of
>Ophthalmology
>at the Doheny Eye Institute, part of the University of Southern California.

>An early version of the prosthetic retina has already been fitted to six
>patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative and incurable eye
>condition
>that affects 1 in 3,500 people. All have recovered the ability to detect
>light and motion, and even to make out large letters and to distinguish
>between
>objects such as a cup, a knife and a plate.

>The second-generation device that is now starting trials should provide
>even
>better vision, as it contains 60 light-sensitive electrodes, compared with
>16 in the previous model.

>More improvements are expected within five to seven years with a
>1000-electrode implant that will enable previously blind people to
>recognise
>faces, Professor
>Humayun said.

>"The ultimate aim is to allow people recognise faces, and to allow the
>completely blind to get around on their own," he told the American
>Association for
>the Advancement of Science conference in San Francisco. "The first phase
>began in 2002, and the results were not what we expected: we thought they
>would
>only see light and dark, but they have done far better than that.

>"They can differentiate between a cup, a plate and a knife. They can see
>motion. They can avoid stumbling around into large objects. That is just
>with 16
>electrodes, and we're now going up to 60. The models suggest 1,000 will be
>enough for face recognition, and we hope to get there in five to seven
>years."


>The bionic eye consists of three elements. First, a miniature camera worn
>in
>a pair of dark glasses, which transmits images to a radio receiver
>implanted
>near the patient's eye.

>This then sends a signal on to a tiny silicon and platinum chip, about 4mm
>square, that sits on the retina. The chip's electrodes stimulate the
>ganglion
>cells that transmit visual information to the optic nerve and onwards to
>the
>brain, which can then construct a visual image.

>"A plate is seen as a saucer of light, and a knife as a runway of light,"
>Professor Humayun said. "It works by building up images like a dot-matrix
>printer,
>or pixels on a computer screen." The implant is suitable for people who are
>blind because they have lost the photoreceptor cells known as rods and
>cones
>that respond to light - the electrodes effectively provide artificial
>replacements. This includes those with macular degeneration - the most
>common cause
>of blindness, which affects up to 15 per cent of over-75s.

>The technology cannot restore sight to patients who are blind because of
>severe optic nerve damage, such as that caused by glaucoma, or because of a
>stroke.


>Professor Humayun said that it would also work better for people who have
>been able to see as older children or adults, than for those who have been
>blind
>since birth.

>It generally takes patients a month or two to get used to the Argus device,
>before their brains learn to interpret the images. While the operation to
>install
>it took seven hours originally, it now takes 90 minutes.

>In the first phase of the trials, patients were able to use the implant in
>the laboratory only. For the past year they have also been allowed to try
>it
>at home. "Perhaps what we're most excited about in this next study is we
>will be able to test the new device with patients at their homes, churches,
>schools
>and similar locations," Professor Humayun said.

>The trials will be conducted at five centres in the US, on patients over
>50.
>The US Food and Drug Administration has insisted on older subjects as they
>have less to lose if the experiments go wrong.

>Thousands of people have already volunteered.



>RyanO

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