Chip-enhanced Eye to Help the Blind

Today's flurry of innovations for the disabled, including cochlear implants and high-tech prosthetic limbs, have made '70s television show "The Six Million Dollar Man" all but irrelevant. The latest innovation to come out of MIT, though, is a real eye-opener.

Researchers at the renowned institution have created a retinal implant consisting of a microchip, which bypasses damaged retinal tissue and sends visual cues directly to the brain, Wired News reported. People who get the implants also wear special glasses with a camera, which sends images to the chip and then to the brain.

It's a revolutionary breakthrough that could partially restore vision lost from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, the two leading causes of blindness.

It won't completely restore vision, as the MIT press release points out, but promises to help blind people better navigate a sidewalk or a room. Or, as researcher Shawn Kelly explains in the Wired article, "If they can recognize faces of people in a room, that brings them into the social environment as opposed to sitting there waiting for someone to talk to them."

Here's how it works, according the press release:

"When the microchip receives visual information, it activates electrodes that stimulate nerve cells in the areas of the retina corresponding to the features of the visual scene. The electrodes directly activate optical nerves that carry signals to the brain, bypassing the damaged layers of retina."

Researchers hope to start testing prototypes in humans within the next three years.

Photo courtesy of Shawn Kelly, from an MIT press release