How the Prototype Bionic Eye Works

How the Prototype Bionic Eye Works Dr. Travis Stork: And now there’s a fix for some people who suffer from loss of sight. We have seen bionic technology on the mo vies for years, but now it’s a reality. Dr. Mark Humayun: Well the research that we’re doing is using state of the art implantable electronics to restore sight to the blind. It has wearable and an implantable part. The wearable has glasses with a tiny camera and an antenna electronics which transmits the information from the camera to the implanted part. Dr. Armand Tanguay: So what you’re going to see here is a visual prosthesis stimulator that shows what the camera mounted on the head is seen. Here we are looking at Dr. Humayun, he is now waving his hand at you saying hi, and this is his face. Kathy: My name is Kathy. I’ve been blind for about 35 years. I am part of a clinical trial. In fact, I’m the first person to have the surgery in the space. Dr. Mark Humayun: What we’re finding is that you can in fact do things like for example had large object like a table and a chair toward the doorway is. Kathy: I’m very happy with what I have. I cannot really see detail of anything, but I am seeing things. Dr. Mark Humayun: There are millions of people who are blinded by damaged to the rods and cones, and therefore when inherited conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa. And so, those are the population that is targeted at. Kathy: I was able to actually plane out the moon in sky and that was very, very cool, because I’m sure it’s been at least 30 years since I would have ever you know, since I’ve seen the moon in the sky. Dr. Travis Stork: Joining us is Dr. Mark Humayun, who is from the US Department of Energy Artificial Retina Project. He’s not only a surgeon he’s an engineer and creator of this bionic eye you will see. Thanks for being here. Dr. Mark Humayun: Thanks Travis. Dr. Travis Stork: This is such cool technology and obviously blindness is something that we think of as being untreatable. Who is the candidate for this type of bionic eye? Dr. Mark Humayun: Well this sort of device helps patients who are blind from retinal conditions, who have damaged to the rods and cones, and therefore they can’t see, and these conditions are either inherited or could be degenerative. Dr. Travis Stork: And rods and cones live in your retina, they are the things that help us see. So, let’s walk through and I think we have an animation of how this works. Dr. Mark Humayun: Well what you see in this animation is that the camera captures the large E and these images then wirelessly transmitted to the implant in the eye. And this implant around then eye captures this image again wirelessly, no wires and then sense this image information by a tiny electrical pulses which stimulate the remaining nerve cells in the retina, that orange tissue is the retina. And this delicate device electrode that sets on the retina then jumps starts their neural tissue and sends the information to the brain, and that’s how it allows a blind person to see. Dr. Travis Stork: So it’s actually implanted it like we have up in this model up here on the eye. Dr. Mark Humayun: Right. This is actually the receiver electronics. It’s all hidden underneath the skin the conjunctive of the eye so you don’t see it. But this is what connects the blind person wirelessly to a camera. Dr. Travis Stork: So the camera helps us see, but what a patient has this implanted to see. Do we have a stimulation of what I might see if I’m wearing these glasses? It’s obviously not going to be quite as crystal clear as normal vision. Dr. Mark Humayun: But here you can see, we’re looking at the large E, but even with this early device, you can start to see. Here I’m moving my hand back and forth. You can see me this standing and for somebody is completely blind to be able to see a large object, to be able to see hand motions like that, or ready with this technology is very, very exciting. Dr. Travis Stork: And are you not able almost retrain your brain to see images. If you’re previously blind, you’re brain starts to interpret this better and better over time as well. Dr. Mark Humayun: Well that’s the most amazing thing. The brain starts to fill in the missing information and it’s like seeing a child crawl, walk, and run. The brain starts to accept this information. It’s amazing what it can do.