Bionic eye gave people the ability to read

Today there are already a lotelectronic devices that can help people who have lost a particular sense organ. The simplest example is different types of hearing aids that allow people to hear sounds and speech again. However, from an organ of view things are not so rosy. At least, it was still up to today, because in France, for the first time, a bionic eye was successfully tested, which returned sight to patients with macular dystrophy.

What is macular degeneration

In general terms, macular dystrophy is a group.diseases (because they distinguish various forms of pathology) in which the retinal photoreceptors are damaged and die. Or rather, its central zone. Initially, due to lack of blood circulation, the eyesight of the patients deteriorates, and then disappears altogether. Age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of blindness in older people.

How to return sight

According to the editors of the portal New Scientist,Paris-based company Pixium Vision recently tested a bionic eye on a group of five volunteers. By itself, the bionic eye is a fairly simple system. The main component of the eye is a microchip, which is installed behind the retina. An implant is also installed in the patient's optic nerve, which is able to pick up visual digital signals and transmit them to the optic nerve so that the brain can process it and translate it into an image. The last part of the device are smart glasses equipped with a camera.

This is interesting: An implant has been created that returns the sense of smell to people.

Everything works as follows: the camera takes the image, translates it into infrared signals, which are transmitted processed by the microchip, then the information is transmitted to the implant, and from it to the optic nerve. This allows the blind person to see again.

During the experiment after installing the bionicthe eyes of all five people were able to see and distinguish again the outlines of objects, the faces of people and the situation in the room. Moreover, three out of five were even able to distinguish the letters written in the newspaper and were again able to read.

According to Pixium Vision, to makeinstallation of such implants available to a wide range of people, it will take about five years. During this time, scientists need to further refine their technology.

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