An experimental eye implant from medical
technology company Science Corporation allowed study participants to see well
enough to read, play cards, and fill in a crossword puzzle despite being
legally blind. The Prima implant consists of a 2-mm square chip surgically
placed under the retina. A pair of glasses with a camera captures visual
information and beams patterns of infrared light to the chip, which converts
the light to electrical pulses and sends them to the brain. The trial enrolled
people with geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular
degeneration, or AMD, that causes gradual loss of central vision. People with
the condition still have peripheral vision but have blind spots in their
central vision, making it difficult to read, recognize faces, or see in low
light.
The trial enrolled an initial 38 participants
ages 60 and older in the UK and Europe, but six people dropped out of the study
before the one-year mark. To measure improvement in vision acuity researchers
used a classic eye chart. The volunteers started off with an average visual
acuity of 20/450. Normal visual acuity is 20/20, and legal blindness is defined
as 20/200 or worse. After a year, the 32 people who stayed in the trial were
able to read nearly five more lines down the vision chart, or 23 letters, on
average compared to what they could at the start of the study. It was enough to
improve their eyesight to an average of 20/160. Some participants are even able
to see at 20/63 acuity using the implant’s built-in zoom and magnification
feature. While most of the participants saw a notable improvement after a year,
five didn’t see a benefit at all.
More information:
https://www.wired.com/story/science-corporation-neuralink-eye-implant-restored-vision-blind-people/
