World's 1st bionic eye

[vniow]

Vision Quest

A HALF CENTURY OF ARTIFICIAL-SIGHT RESEARCH HAS SUCCEEDED. AND NOW THIS BLIND MAN CAN SEE.

By Steven Kotler

I'M SITTING ACROSS FROM A BLIND MAN — CALL HIM PATIENT Alpha — at a long table in a windowless conference room in New York. On one end of the table there's an old television and a VCR. On the other end are a couple of laptops. They're connected by wires to a pair of homemade signal processors housed in unadorned gunmetal-gray boxes, each no bigger than a loaf of bread. In the corner stands a plastic ficus tree, and beyond that, against the far wall, a crowded bookshelf. Otherwise, the walls are white and bare. When the world's first bionic eye is turned on, this is what Patient Alpha will see.

Neato.

click me

[medea]

Resistence is futile!
but that is seriously an amazing article. we are capable of much more than most are willing to do.....yet

[TMay]

... a bionic third eye...

[Hemingray]

Scary and fascinating all at the same time...

[Dr. Distortion]

Geez.. all those replies on a fictional short story...

[marcsiry]

...the maddening "doot-do-doot-doot-do" sound the eye makes when viewing distant objects.

[PCUser]

Dr. Distortion, how to do you come to the conclusion it's a "fictional story"? Just curious. I see nothing on the site (or it's parent site, http://www.wired.com/wired/current.html -- Wired Magazine) to suggest that. This is the cover story of the September 2002 edition of Wired Magazine.

[e-coli]

umm...i don't think that this is a "fictional short story".

pretty gosh darn amazing if you ask me.

There's a study going on at MIT right now where they're avtually growing nerve and brain tissue on a microchip. And what's even more amazing, is that the cells are actually interacting with the microprocessor.

amazing.

[Moxiemike]

Ummm. macrumors has had a bionic eye long before this....

[Mr. Anderson]

bionic eyes will be great, considering you'd be able to eventually get them in infrared and ultra violet - then the true x-ray eyes option package....people with perfectly good eyes would want the surgery and eyeglasses, I know I would if it was possible - seeing in the dark.....

D

[e-coli]

Originally posted by dukestreet
I know I would if it was possible - seeing in the dark.....

church, man. church.

[scem0]

Now, think about the potential for these eyes.... In the future, bionic eyes will be able to see better then regular eyes, so we might all have bionic eyes eventually.

[sparkleytone]

if presented with all the options brought forth by this article, i guarantee that the only accepted way to give artificial sight would be the final method, which actually functions with the damaged or nonfunctioning eye rather than the brain. actually tunneling through the skull and even thru brain tissue would not be an accepted course of action when an alternative exists.

[cb911]

that's amazing that they can do that sort of stuff.

that first page had me a bit confused though, then i finally found the links to the next page.

[Dr. Distortion]

Originally posted by PCUser
Dr. Distortion, how to do you come to the conclusion it's a "fictional story"? Just curious. I see nothing on the site (or it's parent site, http://www.wired.com/wired/current.html -- Wired Magazine) to suggest that. This is the cover story of the September 2002 edition of Wired Magazine.

Well, it doesn't seem quite like an academical publication... more like a sensationalized story imho. Must be the American style of bringing information to the masses...

[PCUser]

With us Americans, everything has to sensationalized, otherwise we don't care. If it doesn't catch people's attention in an instant, we won't watch or read it....

[Dr. Distortion]

Originally posted by PCUser
With us Americans, everything has to sensationalized, otherwise we don't care. If it doesn't catch people's attention in an instant, we won't watch or read it....

Well, you know what they say about us ppl from the Netherlands... always sober and to the point...

-Dr. D.

[King Cobra]

I remember seeing something like this a few weeks back on the All News Channel (which got the boot on the hour of October) with probably the exact same setup. It certainly takes some getting used to though.

(1) See marcsiry's post.
(2) People are used to looking with their eyes and by not moving their skulls. This automatic "eye" requires you to turn your neck so many degrees to view something. Moving your eyes would not help.
(3) PRICE! How much does all this cost? I'm no expert on technology prices, but the surgery, training, and the technology involved has to cost at least $5000, if not, more. You have to be ridiculously rich to afford something like this. Also, is this technology rainproof, or extreme temperature proof? What happens if one of the cords break? Or if you don't see where you are going and bump into a person in rush mode? It's ironically possible.

For a start, this will IMO pave the way towards future and more advanced technology.