Bionic eye implanted in woman in Australia

Panzerkampfwagen · Aug 29, 2012

A vision impaired Australian woman has successfully had the prototype of a bionic eye implanted.
It is the first time in the world such a device has been implanted behind the retina.
Victorian recipient Dianne Ashworth can now experience some vision, with the device switched on last month at Melbourne's Bionics Institute, which also pioneered the bionic ear.
"I didn't know what to expect but all of a sudden I could see a little flash," Ms Ashworth said in a statement on Thursday.
"It was amazing.
"Every time there was stimulation, there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye," she said.
Ms Ashworth has profound vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition.
The 24-electrode device was designed, built and tested by a team led by Professor Rob Shepherd, the director of the Bionics Institute.
It was implanted by Penny Allen, a specialist surgeon at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, and others at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
"This is a world first," Dr Allen said.
"We implanted a device in this position behind the retina, demonstrating the viability of our approach."
Dr Allen said the implant was only switched on and stimulated after the eye had fully recovered from surgery.
Prof Shepherd said researchers were working with Ms Ashworth to determine what she sees each time the retina is stimulated.
"The team is looking for consistency of shapes, brightness, size and location of flashes to determine how the brain interprets this information," he said.
"Having this unique information will allow us to maximise our technology as it evolves through 2013 and 2014."
Bionic Vision Australia chair Professor David Penington said the next big step would be starting implants of full devices.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/14705135/bionic-eye-implanted-in-victorian-woman/

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So now we have bionic ears and bionic eyes. I wonder what we'll develop next?

waltky · Apr 23, 2014

Michigan Man Sees Thanks to 'Bionic Eye'...

Michigan man among 1st in US to get 'bionic eye'
23 Apr.`14 A degenerative eye disease slowly robbed Roger Pontz of his vision.

Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager, Pontz has been almost completely blind for years. Now, thanks to a high-tech procedure that involved the surgical implantation of a "bionic eye," he has regained enough of his eyesight to catch small glimpses of his wife, grandson and cat. "It's awesome. It's exciting seeing something new every day," Pontz said during a recent appointment at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. The 55-year-old former competitive weightlifter and factory worker is one of four people in the U.S. to receive an artificial retina since the Food and Drug Administration signed off on its use last year. The facility in Ann Arbor has been the site of all four such surgeries since FDA approval. A fifth is scheduled for next month.

Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disease that causes slow but progressive vision loss due to a gradual loss of the light-sensitive retinal cells called rods and cones. Patients experience loss of side vision and night vision, then central vision, which can result in near blindness. Not all of the 100,000 or so people in the U.S. with retinitis pigmentosa can benefit from the bionic eye. An estimated 10,000 have vision low enough, said Dr. Brian Mech, an executive with Second Sight Medical Products Inc., the Sylmar, Calif.-based company that makes the device. Of those, about 7,500 are eligible for the surgery. The artificial implant in Pontz's left eye is part of a system developed by Second Sight that includes a small video camera and transmitter housed in a pair of glasses.

Images from the camera are converted into a series of electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. The pulses stimulate the retina's remaining healthy cells, causing them to relay the signal to the optic nerve. The visual information then moves to the brain, where it is translated into patterns of light that can be recognized and interpreted, allowing the patient to regain some visual function. When wearing the glasses, which Pontz refers to as his "eyes," he can identify and grab his cat and figure out that a flash of light is his grandson hightailing it to the kitchen. The visual improvement is sometimes startling for Pontz and his wife, Terri, who is just as amazed at her husband's progress as he is. "I said something I never thought I'd say: 'Stop staring at me while I'm eating,'" Terri Pontz said.

She drives her husband the nearly 200 miles from tiny Reed City, Mich., to Ann Arbor for check-ups and visits with occupational therapist Ashley Howson, who helps Roger Pontz reawaken his visual memory and learn techniques needed to make the most of his new vision. At the recent visit, Howson handed Pontz white and black plates, instructed him to move them back and forth in front of light and dark backgrounds and asked that he determine their color. Back home, Terri Pontz helps her husband practice the techniques he learns in Ann Arbor. For them, the long hours on the road and the homework assignments are a blessing. "What's it worth to see again? It's worth everything," Terri Pontz said.

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waltky · Jan 5, 2016

Woman gets her sight back...

The bionic eye changing a woman's life
5 January 2016 - At Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, a clinical trial is taking place in which six patients who have had little or no sight for many years are having a cutting-edge "bionic eye" implanted in an attempt to give them some sight, and independence, back.

The first patient in this trial is 49-year-old Rhian Lewis, from Cardiff. She explains: "I was a toddler when my parents noticed I would not cross a darkened room, even from one light room to another light room, and that I was really scared of the dark. So they took me back and forward to the optician and specialists and then they diagnosed me with retinitis pigmentosa."

This disorder destroys the light sensitive cells in the retina - but how much and how quickly varies from person to person. In Rhian's case, it eventually made her almost completely blind. "I think I was about four or five. I've never had any vision at night or in dim light and then, as I went through school, I had the glasses and I sat at the front because I couldn't see the board. "It was progressive and as I went to work in a shop, checking up deliveries, I had to use a magnifier increasingly to check the delivery notes and then I couldn't read the titles of the books properly, so then they put me on to different materials, like art and stationery, because there were different shapes and sizes so I could manage with that - I could do a lot from memory."

The small implant measures 3mm by 3mm

Her sight deteriorated and around 16 years ago she lost all vision in her right eye and most of the sight in her left eye. "In my left eye, I sort of navigate around by light. If it's bright outside I'll sort of aim for the window or if it's dark and the lights are on I'll navigate by the light bulbs, like a moth." The problem with having no sight, she says, is that you also lose your confidence because you lose your mobility. "I don't go out and about on my own, ever. Then around the house, the kitchen, you rely on other people to find things for you - it's very frustrating. It's simple things like shopping...clothes shopping, you don't know what you look like. It's been, maybe eight years that I've had any sort of idea of what my children look like. And I've got friends now where I've got no idea what they look like. And I certainly don't know how I've aged."

The implant sits at the back of the eye and takes over the job of cells called photoreceptors

In the summer, Rhian travelled to Oxford for an operation to implant a tiny 3x3mm chip into her right eye. The device replaces the light-sensitive retinal cells in the eye, and is connected to a tiny computer that sits underneath the skin behind the ear. When it is switched on using a magnetic coil applied to the skin, signals travel to the optic nerve and then to the brain. Rhian still had an intact optic nerve and all the brain wiring needed for vision, but her mind needed time to adjust to the signals it was suddenly receiving after being dormant for so long.

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milorafferty · Jan 5, 2016

Dang, I was expecting them to look like Geordi.

Greataxe · Jan 7, 2016

Panzerkampfwagen said: ↑

A vision impaired Australian woman has successfully had the prototype of a bionic eye implanted.
It is the first time in the world such a device has been implanted behind the retina.
Victorian recipient Dianne Ashworth can now experience some vision, with the device switched on last month at Melbourne's Bionics Institute, which also pioneered the bionic ear.
"I didn't know what to expect but all of a sudden I could see a little flash," Ms Ashworth said in a statement on Thursday.
"It was amazing.
"Every time there was stimulation, there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye," she said.
Ms Ashworth has profound vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition.
The 24-electrode device was designed, built and tested by a team led by Professor Rob Shepherd, the director of the Bionics Institute.
It was implanted by Penny Allen, a specialist surgeon at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, and others at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
"This is a world first," Dr Allen said.
"We implanted a device in this position behind the retina, demonstrating the viability of our approach."
Dr Allen said the implant was only switched on and stimulated after the eye had fully recovered from surgery.
Prof Shepherd said researchers were working with Ms Ashworth to determine what she sees each time the retina is stimulated.
"The team is looking for consistency of shapes, brightness, size and location of flashes to determine how the brain interprets this information," he said.
"Having this unique information will allow us to maximise our technology as it evolves through 2013 and 2014."
Bionic Vision Australia chair Professor David Penington said the next big step would be starting implants of full devices.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/14705135/bionic-eye-implanted-in-victorian-woman/

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So now we have bionic ears and bionic eyes. I wonder what we'll develop next?
Click to expand...

Don't look for wonderful results using this current technology. There won't be the incredible vision that the Six Million Dollar Man had with his.

A retinal genius told a group of us recently that such devices placed on the eye are not well tolerated. He said the eye was more like a mass of jello. If an object is placed on the outside of it, the resulting G forces of it moving would cause tears and breakage. The human eye undergoes fast movements, so these "wonder devices placed on the retina or pupil can cause much tissue destruction.

Even worse luck with trying to repair damaged retinas with DNA grafts. Not happening.

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