Scientists at MIT and other research organizations are testing chip technologies that could help bring eyesight to individuals with conditions like age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

Microchips place onto or inside the eyeball are assisted by a pair of electronic glasses the patient wears. Results vary, but many subjects report significant improvement in orientation and mobility. MIT hopes to have a device within two years so that they can get FDA approval from for use on chronic patients.

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The restoration process starts with an image captured by a small camera attached to a pair of glasses. After streaming through a video processor, the data is then transferred back through the glasses to a tiny electrode “sheet” implanted on the retina. These electrodes use electrical impulses to communicate visual information to undamaged retinal tissue (just as healthy rods and cones would have done). The result is some degree of sight.

Currently the devices have only 60 electrodes, compared to more than 2 million in HD televisions, so images are still rough. Researchers from Second Sight will follow project participants for the next three years to track progress. They hope to develop versions with 200 and 1000 electrodes in the future.

Editor’s Notes: Certain nutrients have been researched as helping to preserve vision for those with Retinitis Pigmentosa. For more information, go to http://www.naturaleyecare.com/diseases.asp?d_num=12

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MIT engineers have designed a retinal implant for people who have lost their vision from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, two of the leading causes of blindness.

The retinal prosthesis would help restore some vision by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.

The chip would not restore normal vision but could help blind people more easily navigate a room or walk down a sidewalk. “Anything that could help them see a little better and let them identify objects and move around a room would be an enormous help,” says Shawn Kelly, a researcher in MIT’s Research Laboratory for Electronics and member of the Boston Retinal Implant Project.

Patients who received the implant would wear a pair of glasses with a camera that sends images to a microchip attached to the eyeball. The glasses also contain a coil that wirelessly transmits power to receiving coils surrounding the eyeball. When the microchip receives visual information, it activates electrodes that stimulate nerve cells in the areas of the retina corresponding to the features of the visual scene. The electrodes directly activate optical nerves that carry signals to the brain, bypassing the damaged layers of retina.

The research team, led by John Wyatt, MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, recently reported a new prototype that they hope to start testing in blind patients within the next three years, after some safety refinements are made. Once human trials begin and blind patients can offer feedback on what they’re seeing, the researchers will learn much more about how to configure the algorithm implemented by the chip to produce useful vision.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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An Ottawa company is developing computerized glasses to help those with severe visual impairments maximize the vision they have left. 

The glasses, which look like an oversize pair of sunglasses, have a high-resolution camera on the outside and tiny LCD screens on the inside that project images to the wearer’s eyes.  The glasses will also zoom in on and replay what has been seen with the press of a button.

The company, eSight Corp., received a $500,000 grant from the Ontario government to develop its evSpex product, and hopes to start commercial production next year.

Before the image is projected, it’s custom-processed by a tiny computer.  “So that when it’s presented to a person who has diseased eyes … it’s presented to the pieces of their vision that are most functional,” said eSight Corp. company president Rob Hilkes.

Because the device continually records a loop of video, the user can save the last 10 seconds of what they saw at the press of a button so they can look again at something that went by too quickly.  The video can be viewed later on a DVD player or computer.   Users can also zoom in on certain things in their field of view

The product is expected to be able to help people with age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa.  In the future, the company hopes to market the technology to people with normal vision as wearable binoculars, night vision goggles or video gaming devices.

SOURCE:  High-tech glasses help the nearly blind see, CBC News, Sept. 11, 2009, http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/11/ottawa-esight-glasses-technology-company-blind.html

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