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Old 02-10-2013, 09:26 AM   #1
Doppleganger
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And the blind can see

But will the dead talk?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Discovery
After years of research, the first bionic eye has seen the light of day in the United States, giving hope to the blind around the world.

Developed by Second Sight Medical Products, the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System has helped more than 60 people recover partial sight, with some experiencing better results than others.

Consisting of 60 electrodes implanted in the retina and glasses fitted with a special mini camera, Argus II has already won the approval of European regulators. The US Food and Drug Administration is soon expected to follow suit, making this bionic eye the world's first to become widely available.

"It's the first bionic eye to go on the market in the world, the first in Europe and the first one in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, the California-based company's vice president of business development.

Those to benefit from Argus II are people with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease, affecting about 100,000 people in the U.S., that results in the degeneration of the retinal photoreceptors.

The photoreceptor cells convert light into electrochemical impulses that are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve, where they are decoded into images.

"The way the prosthesis works (is) it replaces the function of the photoreceptors," Mech told AFP.

Thirty people aged 28 to 77 took part in the clinical trial for the product, all of whom were completely blind.

Mech said the outcomes varied by participant.

"We had some patients who got just a little bit of benefit and others who could do amazing things like reading newspaper headlines," he said.

In some cases, the subjects could even see in color.

"Mostly they see in black and white, but we have demonstrated more recently we can produce color vision as well," Mech said.

According to Mech, Argus II is already available in several European countries for 73,000 euros ($99,120). A U.S. price has not been set but is likely to be higher, he said.

"Now we are (at) around 60 patients... We have tons of surgeries scheduled, the number is growing almost daily," he said.

Other researchers are also vying to develop bionic eyes of their own, that would offer higher resolution images with more electrodes implanted in the retina.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a team lead by John Wyatt is working on a system that would have up to 400 electrodes.

Daniel Palanker of California's Stanford University is proposing a different approach based on tiny photovoltaic cells instead of electrodes.

"We're thinking about implanting up to 5,000 of these cells at the back of the eye that would theoretically allow for a resolution that is ten times better," George Goetz, a member of Palanker's team, told AFP. This system would also help individuals who lost their sight due to age-related macular degeneration, he added.

These photovoltaic cells convert light into electrical impulses that stimulate the nerve cells in the retina, which then transmit the signals to the brain.

This system has successfully been tested in rats, and the first clinical trial could begin in a year, probably in France. Palanker is linked with French company Pixium Vision based in Paris.

Grace Shen, of the National Eye Institute that has supported both the Argus and Palanker projects, said work on stem cells and optogenetics were also important areas to focus on in developing treatments or the prevention of blindness. Through optogenetics, retina cells can be genetically modified to render them light-sensitive again.

"I think the bionic eye is something that is going to work in some patients and is not going to work with all patients, but it's an exciting time ahead," said Shen.
...

Source.
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Old 02-10-2013, 09:54 AM   #2
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That's pretty sweet.

I wonder how long it'll take someone to hack into it to make advertisements appear.
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Old 02-10-2013, 10:07 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Holy Emperor View Post
That's pretty sweet.

I wonder how long it'll take someone to hack into it to make advertisements appear.
Steve Jobs is doing it right now from his secret base within Mariana's Trench. In the process he is stealing the schematics for Apple. Next month Apple will release the iEye. It can't hold a charge and every time you want to adjust your vision you have to accept a licensing agreement.
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Old 02-10-2013, 10:55 AM   #4
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The reason it varies from participant to participant is because of how the brain and the eye interact.

This is basically a replacement eye. If the participant was blind from birth, he or she will not see anything because the optic nerve and the associated cortical region will not be developed enough to carry or recognize optical information. Psych 101.

However, this would be a wonderful advancement for those who are partially blind, or who lost their eyesight due to some kind of disease (Why did Helen Keller's dog run away? You would, too, if your name was "aaauuuuugh"). More power to science!

...Still can't do it with mud, though. Too bad, this could have lent validation to the Jesus as a Time Traveler conspiracy theory :P
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Old 02-10-2013, 11:17 AM   #5
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So cyberization has begun.
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Old 02-10-2013, 01:46 PM   #6
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Dunno about you guys, but I can't wait until we move from this silly "help people who need help" thing to "I want to shoot lasers out of my new cybernetic eyes, take my money."

That said, this is amazing. Really expensive though, alas.
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Old 02-10-2013, 03:49 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amras.MG View Post
That said, this is amazing. Really expensive though, alas.
I'd pay anything to regain use of one of my senses.
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Old 02-10-2013, 04:00 PM   #8
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If you had the money to pay, yeah.
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Old 02-10-2013, 04:01 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I'd pay anything to regain use of one of my senses.
The glass half empty: The article mentions that the technology specifically benefits those with retinitis pigmentosum and not those with macular degeneration, optic neuritis, or (as was brought up earlier) cortical lesions and other CNS causes for blindness. It also mentions the use of only 60 electrodes. Not exactly sure how those electrodes are being put to use (i.e. how their effects stack together) but when you consider that the human eye consists of millions of cones, over a hundred million rods, over a million ganglion cells, and so on, ... I mean, in the fovea centralis, the number of photoreceptors to which each individual ganglion cell connects can be as few as you have fingers to count with. So it's doubtful that this technology would be of much use to people with macular degeneration, loss of the eyeball from physical trauma, and so on. It sounds like it has a very niche market for right now.

The glass half full: this is an important step forward towards the bionic eye. People were skeptical about cochlear implants when they first showed up too, but those ended up proving far more powerful and satisfactory for patients than we thought they would, and look at where we are today with the technology. Hopefully the same will be true soon for eyes.
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Old 02-10-2013, 05:24 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
The glass half empty: The article mentions that the technology specifically benefits those with retinitis pigmentosum and not those with macular degeneration, optic neuritis, or (as was brought up earlier) cortical lesions and other CNS causes for blindness. It also mentions the use of only 60 electrodes. Not exactly sure how those electrodes are being put to use (i.e. how their effects stack together) but when you consider that the human eye consists of millions of cones, over a hundred million rods, over a million ganglion cells, and so on, ... I mean, in the fovea centralis, the number of photoreceptors to which each individual ganglion cell connects can be as few as you have fingers to count with. So it's doubtful that this technology would be of much use to people with macular degeneration, loss of the eyeball from physical trauma, and so on. It sounds like it has a very niche market for right now.
I'd think that any mental stimulation/relief that comes about from restored eye-sight is more than enough to make up for the issue of it falling short of full restoration, given the costs/limitations. If a person's going to go insane because their hands were amputated, the sensation of manipulating a prosthetic hand (that they can't feel) is going to aid their mental health. I can only imagine it even more profound for eye-sight, since it's the most important/powerful sense in terms of the sheer amount of information it relays to the brain.
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Old 02-10-2013, 05:43 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I'd think that any mental stimulation/relief that comes about from restored eye-sight is more than enough to make up for the issue of it falling short of full restoration, given the costs/limitations. If a person's going to go insane because their hands were amputated, the sensation of manipulating a prosthetic hand (that they can't feel) is going to aid their mental health. I can only imagine it even more profound for eye-sight, since it's the most important/powerful sense in terms of the sheer amount of information it relays to the brain.
I can't know what I'd feel in that position, but I believe I would not match up with what you say. I believe that if I were to lose total eyesight, and then you offered me the gift of sight again but that "sight" was just going to be seeing the world like this:



instead of like this:



I'd just as soon stay blind. A, it would be too infuriating / too frustrating to see the world so much more poorly than I once did. It would not be "better than nothing" as people patronized me that it would be. "At least you can see your grandchildren now, you ungrateful, horrible old man! " someone on their high and mighty steed might condescendingly say to me, but I would retort "No I can't! You call this seeing my grandkids? ALL I SEE IS FUZZY CHROMOSOMES!" B, I would opt to sit this technology out for the time being and wait for a superior technology to come along. With a lot of these operations, once you're in, that's it: you're done for life. You can't undo the operation to try out something else. You can't "upgrade" ten years down the road when something better comes along. Surgery is still crude enough and "now or never" enough that you're still locked in with a lot of these medical enhancements we see in recent times. I would just as soon wait patiently and be a blind old man for 5 more years (even risking dying before my chance at the new tech) if I thought it meant I had a shot at a 99% "just like the real thing" eye rather than jumping the gun on this "lol 60 electrodes " tech instead and now being someone who sees the world in black and white fuzz for life.

That is my feeling here, as a 28 year old man with sight in both eyes. Maybe I would feel very differently if I were to go blind. Maybe I would say "28 year old Talon was ignorant and didn't know what he was talking about. I do. I am blind, and I can tell you that Doppleganger was right: I'd do anything to have my sight back, and I'd take any improvement, however meager." But ... that's just not how I feel right now. Sorry. This is a great stepping stone towards a better bionic eye, but I think it's naive to say that the glass is 100% full on this news story.
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Old 02-18-2013, 03:23 AM   #12
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And the numb can feel
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Old 02-18-2013, 05:35 AM   #13
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Does this mean we have a good retort whenever Linkin Park's "Numb" comes on?
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Old 02-18-2013, 07:59 AM   #14
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>"widely available"
>will cost over $100,000 in US

Right... still a wonderful achievement beyond all belief but I think the price is too high and the market too niche to really be widely useful right now.
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