This weekend I received an interesting newsletter in the mail called Artificial Retina News. It says its “the first issue of a newsletter about the Artificial Retina Project of the U.S. Department of Energy.”
One sidebar discusses the engineering of “The Bionic Eye.” The plan is to create a devise that “consists of a tiny camera and microprocessor mounted in eyeglasses, a receiver implanted behind the ear, and an electrode-studded array that is tacked to the retina. A wireless battery pack worn on the belt powers the entire devise.”
Sounds pretty cool, huh?
Now what does this have to do with genre travel? Well, for one a prototype has enabled “patients to distinguish light from dark and localize large objects.” They even showed a pateint shaking hands with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.
Also, once such devices are perfected and many of the blind are able to see, they’ll be able to more fully enjoy genre travel while using a device once only possible in fiction!
Now that’s really cool.
For More Information:
Artificial Retina News, Vol. 1, Issue 1: Fall 2006
Jeepers Creepers, Bionic Peepers, Wired, May, 05, 2005
Sandia researchers to model nano-size battery to be implanted in eye to power artificial retina, Sandia Corporation News Release, January 12, 2006
