A group of 18 researchers from several Chinese universities has developed a tiny retinal prosthesis that restores vision in blind mice and monkeys. Their study, published this summer in Science, concluded that the implant not only restored the animals’ sight, but also allowed them to perceive the infrared spectrum, which is invisible to the human eye. The authors refer to this as “enhanced vision” and hailed the implant’s ability to expand perception of vision in low light and the general range of visual sensibility. However, the road to human trials is still long, and developers say that it would not be ethical to apply the nanoprosthesis to people with healthy eyes.
The study’s objective was to restore vision in cases of blindness caused by degenerative retinal diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. The tiny implant, measuring two millimeters in width and height, with a width of 0.1 millimeters, replaces damaged photoreceptors by mimicking their functions. It differs from other prostheses of the same membrane because it is constructed from tellurium nanowires, a conductive material with high light sensitivity that allows it to absorb both visible and low-energy photons, which are impossible for humans to detect.
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That sounds really cool. In 10 years time we’ll probably all have cybernetic infrared vision!
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Just having vision when I reach 95 will be great. My mother has a lot of trouble seeing & I’m hoping that something comes along to fix macular degeneration before I’m her age.