Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Artificial Retinas Take Major Step Forward

Artificial Retina
"Two researchers in the US have taken a huge step forward in developing technology to help blind people see: they have made an artificial retina that restored normal vision in blind mice. And they have already worked out a way to make a similar device for monkeys, which they hope to quickly redesign and test for human use," reports Medical News Today. "Artificial retinas are not a new invention; however, the ones produced so far only produce rough visual fields where the user sees spots and edges of light to help them navigate. But the one Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have developed allows animals to detect facial features and track moving images." Read more.

Bloomberg News reports that "in research described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists cracked the code the retina uses to communicate with the brain...Once the researchers determined the code the mouse retina used to communicate with the brain, they were able to mimic it with electric-signal sending glasses, Nirenberg said. Previous prosthetics have used less-specific stimulation and proved inherently limited as a result, she said." Read more.

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