There are many causes of blindness in humans, the most prevalent being cataracts and glaucoma. However, the most common among older people is the deterioration of the retina. This means that the cells that receive light have mostly been destroyed due to age, thus neural firing to the brain due to light stimulation is greatly hindered. The result is vision loss. Treatment for blindness is often very limited and sometimes impossible, though of late there has been progress in the field of vision-restoring technology.
Researchers in the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and at Stanford University in California might well have found a potential solution to blindness caused by retina degenerative diseases. It would work in cases where the retinal neurons are still present in the eye, but are either inactive or are not sufficiently stimulated by normal ol’ visible light.
The system is essentially a prosthetic retina that consists of a pair of goggles and a microchip. It is wireless and is therefore slightly more practical and easier to manage than other bulkier solutions which require more hardware to function. A small camera outputs visual images to a miniature LCD screen located in the goggles. The image is transferred to the microchip, implanted beneath the real retina, via pulses of infra-red light. As these laser signals reach the microchip, they stimulate the neurons in the retina. This should allow the brain to see the images as if the retinas had been stimulated by visible light.
As usual with newer solutions though, there are still a number of downfalls and limitations to this system, which is being worked on by the scientists. For now, patients won’t exactly be seeing things in HD, due to the limited number of photodiodes that can fit on the chip. The device can’t quite transmit colour yet either, so it does not truly mimic the ‘normal’ human way of seeing. If the system can be made to be widely used though, it would still be a lot more useful than otherwise. The surgery required is relatively simple and minimal, and it does have a greater pixel density than other prosthetics being worked on. So far, the system has been tested on various lab rats, both blind and not-blind. It seems to have been successful with the rats, and so it holds some promise for humans. The researchers are currently hoping to get some sponsorship to use human test cases, in order to further develop it for more general use for human blindness.
Vision is something that the majority of us take for granted. To be able to see the world around us is really quite important for our safety, and is a big part of how we live and interact with the world. To be able to find a solution that will restore the sense of sight to people is a pretty exciting thing, even if it’s only in development.
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