Hi all, This is good research. However, if you want to experiment with vision, you already have a good alternative that is freely available and requires no surgery. Check out the vOICe at www.seeingwithsound.com
Pranav -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dr. Vipin K. Malhotra Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 7:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AI] Bionic eye 'on market in two years' This is a really amazing news! We may lose reservation for us in time to come! BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Bionic' eye implants look ahead BBC NEWS 'Bionic' eye implants look ahead By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News, San Francisco A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years. US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients. The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement. "What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise blind eye and allow patients to see," said Professor Mark Humayan from the University of California. Wireless vision Retinal implants are able to partially able to restore the vision of people with particular forms of blindness caused by diseases such as macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa. About 1.5 million people worldwide have retinitis pigmentosa, and one in 10 people over the age of 55 have age-related macular degeneration. Both diseases cause the retinal cells which process light at the back of the eye to gradually die. The new devices work by implanting an array of tiny electrodes into the back of the retina. A camera is used to capture pictures, and a processing unit, about the size of a small handheld computer and worn on a belt, converts the visual information into electrical signals. These are then wirelessly sent to a receiver just under the surface of the skin, which in turn feeds them to the electrodes. The whole process happens in real time. Growing dots First-generation, low-resolution devices have already been fitted to six patients. "The longest device has been in for five years," said Professor Humayan. "It's amazing, even with 16 pixels, or electrodes, how much our first six subjects have been able to do." Terry Byland, 58, from California was fitted with an implant in 2004 after going blind with retinitis pigmentosa in 1993. "At the beginning, it was like seeing assembled dots - now it's much more than that," he said. "When I am walking along the street I can avoid low-hanging branches - I can see the edges of the branches." Mr Byland is also able to make out other shapes. "I can't recognise faces, but I can see them like a dark shadow," he said. Brain change The new implant has a higher resolution than the earlier devices, with 60 electrodes. It is also a lot smaller, about one square millimetre, which reduces the amount of surgery that needs to be done to implant the device. The technology has now been given the go-ahead by the US Food and Drug Administration to be used in an exploratory patient trial. This will take place at five centres across America over two years, with 50-75 patients aged over 50. If successful, the device could be commercialised soon after, costing around $30,000 (£15,000). Other devices could then be developed with higher resolution or a wider field of view, said Professor Humayan. Future work includes studying the effects the implants have on the brain. "We are actually studying what happens to the visual cortex over time," said Professor Humayan. The research was presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in San Francisco, US. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/6368089.stm Published: 2007/02/16 10:48:02 GMT © BBC MMVII ----- Original Message ----- From: "Subramani L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "M suresh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 6:30 PM Subject: [AI] Bionic eye 'on market in two years' Bionic eye 'on market in two years' (London Daily Telegraph) By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent, in San Francisco Last Updated: 9:15am GMT 16/02/2007 A bionic eye that can restore sight to the blind could be on the market within two years, according to scientists. The first six patients to try the revolutionary devices have learnt how to detect light, distinguish between objects and perceive direction of motion. American scientists were this week given approval to test a more advanced version of the electronic retinal implant on up to 75 subjects. The breakthrough offers new hope to millions of people around the world who have lost their vision to degenerative eye diseases, particularly those with macular degeneration - the most common cause of blindness in western countries. Up to 15pc of over-75s are affected by the condition. It will also help those with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of incurable inherited eye diseases that cause the degeneration of the photoreceptor cells whose job it is capture and process light. The device takes the place of the photoreceptors. Prof Mark Humayun, from the University of Southern California, who is leading the research, yesterday said he had received approval for a clinical trial of the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System. Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Francisco, Prof Humayun said: "We have successfully implanted six patients in the trial. "We expected that all they would be able to do would be to differentiate between light and dark, but were amazed to find they can tell the difference between objects such as a plate, a knife and a cup, and tell which way people are moving across their field of vision. "If the new trial hits its milestones the second generation implant could be commercially available in two years." The device, manufactured by the California-based company Second Sight Medical Products, comes in two parts. A tiny camera in the lens or on the bridge of a pair of light-weight glasses captures images in real time. This information is transmitted to a radio receiver implanted behind the patient's ear which converts it to electrical signals that are sent to a grid of electrodes implanted in the retina. These electrodes stimulate retinal nerve cells to produce electrical impulses which send signals to the brain so that the patient can see spots of light occurring in different patterns. For example, the technology can be programmed to represent a as a U-shaped pattern of light dots, while a circle of dots might indicate the presence of a plate. The first six patients, who all have retinitis pigmentosa, took one to two months to learn to use the device, with those with higher educational standards taking less time. While the first generation device had 16 electrodes in a square on a 4mm by 5mm silicon and platinum chip attached to the retina, the new one has 60 electrodes, hopefully giving patients higher resolution images of more objects. The Argus II, which costs around £15,000, is also approximately one quarter the size of the original, reducing surgery and recovery times. It cannot help those whose optic nerves that had been cut or in patients who have had strokes that have affected the brain's information to process nerve signals. Prof Humayun added that he hoped to produce a third generation implant with 1,000 electrodes which could allow more advanced tasks such as face recognition within seven years. Meanwhile, researchers at Duke University announced they had moved a step closer to creating a "smart bladder pacemaker" that might one day restore bladder control in patients with spinal cord injury or nervous system diseases. Warren Grill, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and colleagues used electrical stimulation of parts of the spines of cats to control the contraction and release of muscles that control the emptying of the bladder. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of M suresh Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 1:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [AI] Sorry Hello friends, I am really sorry for the inconvenience. With out realizing that access India is only to discus Computer related topics, I have sent some irrelavent information about Gulabi's (Visually impaired) financial assistance. I also would like to bring it your notice that Enable India is no way affiliated with this matter. I am sorry for the inconvenience. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. 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