April 24, 2008
The bionic eye that has been developed in Stanford’s Department of Ophthalmology is actually a retinal prosthesis system consisting of a portable wallet-sized computer processor, a solar or AF- powered battery implanted in the eye, a 3-millimeter light-sensing chip implanted on the retina and a tiny video camera mounted on virtual-reality style pulsed infrared goggles.
The system is designed to stimulate the cells in the retina to perceive images, something which the eye’s own photoreceptors do or no longer do in the case of patients with degenerative retinal disease. The first generation is designed for visual acuity of 20/400, the second for 20/200, with the ultimate target as 20/80. For humans who have had their own photoreceptors destroyed by disease or age, this would mean being able to recognize faces and read large-print type.
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