You may know that your retina is made up of rods and cones. This light sensitive receptors can become damaged due to eye diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. The technology being developed uses a ultra-thin flexible, wireless, micro-electronic device that delivers electrical stimulation to the cells that carry visual information to the brain. The idea is to have a thin little chip in your eye that reads the view and send electrical impulses through the retina to the brain.
An article I read states: This summer, the researchers plan to test the implants on animals. Within the next few years, they hope to start performing human trails. Wyatt says: “What level of achievement that would actually be is hard to know; but the idea is of not having to use the white cane – to walk around, find the sidewalk, avoiding a telephone pole. Being able to navigate safely in an unfamiliar environment,, that’s the big topic.”
For more information read the following site: http://www.bostonretinalimplant.org/



