In Germany, a medical technology company
Retina Implant created a device that enables patients to see. This device is an
artificial retina. It’s basically a wireless controlled microchip implanted in
one eye of the patient also the device is still in experimental trials. The
artificial retina can be used for patients with a disease causing the eye’s
light-detecting rod and cone cells, called photoreceptors, to die over time. In
trials, eight out of nine patients could see light through the implant. Then
five could distinguish moving patterns on a screen and three were able to read
letters. The size of the device is
three-millimeter-square chip with 1,500 pixels. A photodiode is in each pixel
which a diode gives a boost of weak electrical activity. There is another
technological approach to retina degeneration created by the Second Sight’s
system which “a camera mounted on eyeglasses picks up images that are converted
into electrical signals by a small wearable computer. “ In this approach,
glasses are used by patients to see while the device made by Retina Implant is implanted
into eye of the patients. Worldwide more
than 20 groups are making some form of visual prosthesis and each one has its
own pros and cons. Since photodiodes are used in Retina Implant’s device a
power supply is necessary and shows their system is not independent around the
eye. Not all patients had the same experience; there are many factors to the
different experiences.
This technology will help blind people
around the world. It will give people another chance to see through their eyes
again. There are many competitors in the visual prosthesis business. The
competition between them could fuel to greater inventions for blind people. A
few years until this device releases because it is still being tested in
Germany, the U.K., and China.
No comments:
Post a Comment