Bionic implanted eyeballs, “Star Trek”-style visors, telescopic contact lenses ... these are just a few of the many exciting projects underway to both restore and provide enhanced sight. Significant strides have been made in tech that will restore and transform lives - replacing white canes, service animals, braille machines and more for the visually impaired.

There has been a lot in the media about prosthetic breakthroughs for U.S. veterans, but what about vision? Last year the Blinded Veterans Association told the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs that there are an estimated 131,580 legally blinded veterans in the U.S., citing data from the Depatment of Veterans Affairs.

One of the first and most promising “bionic eyes” is the Argus II made by Second Sight, which is geared toward patients with retinitis pigmentosa. retinitis pigmentosa is is an inherited condition that involves the loss of cells in the retina and causes a decline in vision.

The system has two parts: a very high tech retinal implant and a camera mounted on eyeglasses or shades. The “bionic eye” is surgically implanted in, and on, the eye. It has an antenna, an electronics case, and an electrode array. The camera processes what it sees and sends it to a small computer that the person wears. The data is processed and translated into instructions that are sent wirelessly to the antenna in the implant.

In fact, this approach could potentially help those blinded by cancer or glaucoma. This new device bypasses the retinal layer and implants electrodes directly onto the visual region of the brain. Second Sight announced a major breakthrough for its Orion I project late last year. In a trial at UCLA, the very first of these devices to directly plug into the brain, a wireless visual cortical stimulator, was implanted in a human subject. The test was a success and restored vision to a 30-year old patient with no major side effects.

Advances in this field are also creating the potential to give US war fighters super vision. Augmenting soldiers with vision-enhancing tech could provide advantages for ground troops and special operations in particular. Warfighters could switch between seeing in night vision, infrared, thermal, zoom, telescopic and more. Whether worn or implanted, it would provide enhanced capabilities that remove the weight of carrying optics and the time lost shifting optics by switching instead at the speed of thought.
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Source: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/02/16/bionic-eye-on-future-from-star-trek-visors-to-mission-impossible-contact-lenses.amp.html

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