In the future, humans may be able to see at night as clearly as during the day, with astonishing visual capabilities. This is not just science fiction.
Armand R. Tanguay, a professor at the University of Southern California, who developed the world’s first implanted camera in the eye for the blind, states: “I wouldn’t dare call it superpowers, but a blind person in the future will have abilities that you and I cannot possess.”
Professor Tanguay’s implanted camera is part of a multi-million dollar project at USC, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, aimed at developing artificial retinas to restore vision for those whose light-sensitive cells have been damaged due to degeneration or disease. This number of victims stands at 10 million people.
The project is already yielding results: Currently, six blind volunteers have implanted salt or silicon devices loaded with electrodes into one of their retinas. A digital camera mounted on sunglasses sends wireless images to this implant, and its 16 electrodes continue to stimulate the retinal nerves to create a sensation of light in the brain.
Although the results show low resolution compared to the 100 million pixels of a healthy eye, the blind volunteers have been able to distinguish between a cup and a plate, light and dark, and they can briefly see people passing by on the sidewalk.
“But we can do even better,” says Mark Humayun, a professor at USC, who pioneered retinal implants and is currently leading the project.
Professor Humayun intends to implant a sensor array of 60 electrodes with a fourfold increase in resolution by 2006, and a chip with 256 electrodes a few years later. Humayun’s ultimate goal is 1,000 electrodes. “This way, the blind will be able to recognize faces and read text,” Humayun explains.
“Imagine throwing a TV into the ocean and still expecting it to work,” says Robert Greenberg, CEO of Second Sight, a company that manufactures retinal implants in California. The eye at that moment would be filled with seawater, which could corrode the electrodes. The next issue is that electrical activity could dry out the nerves and blood vessels.
That’s why Tanguay’s plan to place a camera inside the eye is so ambitious. The device, about the size of an aspirin tablet, consists of a non-spherical glass lens and a CMOS sensor (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) wrapped in a waterproof casing.
The camera is positioned just behind the pupil in the small pocket where the natural vitreous body of the eye usually resides. With this camera device, the blind do not need to turn their heads to look around, unlike people with healthy eyesight.
Tanguay also mentions that the camera, with a focal length of 3mm, will make objects appear more vivid, regardless of their proximity. Additionally, the sensor will convert light into infrared so that the blind can see clearly at night.
With Tanguay’s “biological eye“, the blind will possess superior vision compared to normal sighted individuals.
The Development of the Biological Eye
1929: German neuroscientist Otfried Foerster stimulated the visual cortex of blind volunteers using electrical impulses. The result: they “saw” small points of light.
1968: Giles S. Brindley at the University of Cambridge implanted 80 electrodes under the scalp of a 52-year-old blind woman. When the current was activated, she could see bright dots.
2004: Arman Tanguay and colleague Noelle Stiles conducted the first experiment implanting a digital camera into the eye, replacing the natural lens of a dog with a glass lens and a sensor.
2010: USC researchers will conduct the first trials with blind participants using a digital camera connected to a retinal implant containing 256 electrodes.
2014: An implant with 1,000 electrodes will be introduced, allowing blind volunteers to experiment with recognizing faces and reading text sizes of 1/2 inch (1 inch = 2.54cm) for the first time.
