Scientists can restore vision to blind people
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Blind people will be able to see thanks to a completely new development of scientists Second Sight Argus II Retinal Prosthesis, a device designed by an American firm Second Sight.
Argus II is a video camera, fortified with glasses, as well as a microchip that is implanted in the eye of a blind person and placed on the surface of the retina. The signals received by the eye are processed thanks to 60 electrodes that contain a microchip. The video camera receives light, which is transmitted to the matrix, the electrodes excite pulses in neurons and a person can see the picture.
In case of diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, vision is lost due to the damage to the photoreceptors, odor neurons that transmit a visual signal to the brain are not affected, therefore this device is intended to help people with retinal lesions to be able to see again.
The team of scientists, led by Dr. Thomas Lauritsen, took Argus II as the basis, which was developed earlier. The disadvantage of this device was that the person needed at least ten seconds to distinguish at least one letter. The image was very blurry, and because of the small resolution it was very hard to read with the help of the device. And then the experts decided to modify the device in such a way that he translated the letters and numbers into Braille symbols.
Thanks to this decision, a microchip with electrodes on the retina can "read" the text without much difficulty. And all due to the fact that the Braille alphabet allows you to not detail the image to the maximum.
Experiments with the testing of the new device were carried out with the help of participants in previous experiments, who already had the experience of "communicating" with Argus II. If the old model helped the person to distinguish the printed letter in ten seconds, then the improved model accelerated this process to the letter in a second.
Of course, this process can not be called quick and convenient, especially since the probability that a person will be able to identify a letter correctly is 89%, and the probability of reading the full word is reduced to 60-80%. However, thanks to this device, blind people will be able to read those inscriptions that can not be read by touch, for example, the inscriptions "Caution" or "Beware" in the place where unsafe construction works are conducted.
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