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If you happen to go to a University of Ottawa photonics lab to check out an innovation aimed at helping blind people see and expect some futuristic gadget, you will be disappointed.
The next step in retinal implants — also known as the “bionic eye” — is a computer chip so small a dozen of them could easily fit on a thumbnail. Which is exactly the point.
“Everything has to be very small,” said Ross Cheriton, a PhD student in physics who is working with the Ottawa-Gatineau startup company iBIONICS to develop a solution to power this chip when it is implanted in the eye. “The smaller, the greater the chance for success.”
The bionic eye is nothing new, with a research history that goes back about 30 years. The idea for a bionic eye predates even Star Trek: The Next Generation, which featured a blind character called Geordi La Forge who wore a visor used to scan the electromagnetic spectrum for visual input that created an image in his brain.
LeVar Burton as Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge wearing a visor that allowed him to “see.”
The television series was set more than 200 years in the future, but in 2005 science fiction became science fact when researchers at Stanford University used retinal implants in blind rats.
A bionic eye is already on the market for human use. Second Sight’s Argus II “retinal prothesis system” was approved in Europe in 2011 and in the U.S. in 2013. It uses a camera mounted on a pair of eyeglasses, which feeds a signal to an array of electrodes implanted at the back of the eye. The signal stimulates the optic nerve. The brain’s visual cortex allows the user “see” what’s in front of them.
But bionic eyes can be better, said Suzanne Grant, the co-founder and CEO of iBIONICS, which is developing the “Diamond Eye” — so-called because the chip is housed in a tiny 3.5-mm box made of lab-manufactured diamond, a material compatible with the human body and which carries electricity without a shock.
Existing implanted chips rely on wires that go through the wall of the eye to deliver both the signal from the camera and the electrical power it needs to operate. That’s where the solution being developed in Ottawa takes the next step. The chip, which was developed in Australia, would also be implanted beside the patient’s retina. However, it would work like a tiny solar panel, absorbing light from a very small laser mounted on a pair of frames worn by the user.
Orly Shamir wears the Argus II retinal prosthesis system, a bionic eye that is already on the market.
The laser is aimed into the eye and the chip converts light into electricity that powers the implant. There are no wires, no need to recharge. And it would allow for higher visual resolution than is currently available, another big step forward.
“We’re trying to have an all-in solution,” said Cheriton, who has been working on the project since September.
Ceriton has expertise in turning light into electricity as efficiently as possible and has worked other devices that convert light into electricity, such as solar cells. “This is a little more complicated because you’re working with an eye,” he said.
Users of existing bionic eyes can’t see much more than shapes and light. The ability to identify faces or read is still impossible. That’s what iBIONICS aims to do for people with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that causes degeneration of the rod photoreceptors in the retina and another group of patients with age-related macular degeneration, which causes damage to the macula, a spot near the center of the retina.
The chip has more than 1,000 electrodes.
Current bionic eyes and those nearing the market have 60 to 150 electrodes, said Grant. The Diamond Eye has more than 1,000 electrodes.
“Blindness is devastating,” said Grant. “Our aim is to have people recognize the faces in front of them and lead a more independent life.”
She predicted it will be two years before the bionic eye will be in small-scale clinical trials and five years before it can be considered for FDA approval. Implanting the chip would require surgery that takes about two hours. The implant and surgery would cost about $75,000.
In the meantime, there’s still a lot to learn about how the brain processes the signals it receives. Users of the bionic eye will need training in how to adapt to these signals, said Grant.
Developments in bionic eyes are like innovations in television technology and it won’t be long before resolution improves, said Cheriton. Would it be possible to use the similar technology to augment vision to acquire abilities humans never had before — to see in the dark, say, or have the visual acuity of an eagle? It’s possible, he said.
We’re entering a new era of human-machine interface, said Grant. “We don’t know where this will lead. We’re just beginning. We may be able to use artificial intelligence to relay information that the chip can pick up. Who knows?”
jlaucius@postmedia.com
查看原文...
The next step in retinal implants — also known as the “bionic eye” — is a computer chip so small a dozen of them could easily fit on a thumbnail. Which is exactly the point.
“Everything has to be very small,” said Ross Cheriton, a PhD student in physics who is working with the Ottawa-Gatineau startup company iBIONICS to develop a solution to power this chip when it is implanted in the eye. “The smaller, the greater the chance for success.”
The bionic eye is nothing new, with a research history that goes back about 30 years. The idea for a bionic eye predates even Star Trek: The Next Generation, which featured a blind character called Geordi La Forge who wore a visor used to scan the electromagnetic spectrum for visual input that created an image in his brain.
LeVar Burton as Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge wearing a visor that allowed him to “see.”
The television series was set more than 200 years in the future, but in 2005 science fiction became science fact when researchers at Stanford University used retinal implants in blind rats.
A bionic eye is already on the market for human use. Second Sight’s Argus II “retinal prothesis system” was approved in Europe in 2011 and in the U.S. in 2013. It uses a camera mounted on a pair of eyeglasses, which feeds a signal to an array of electrodes implanted at the back of the eye. The signal stimulates the optic nerve. The brain’s visual cortex allows the user “see” what’s in front of them.
But bionic eyes can be better, said Suzanne Grant, the co-founder and CEO of iBIONICS, which is developing the “Diamond Eye” — so-called because the chip is housed in a tiny 3.5-mm box made of lab-manufactured diamond, a material compatible with the human body and which carries electricity without a shock.
Existing implanted chips rely on wires that go through the wall of the eye to deliver both the signal from the camera and the electrical power it needs to operate. That’s where the solution being developed in Ottawa takes the next step. The chip, which was developed in Australia, would also be implanted beside the patient’s retina. However, it would work like a tiny solar panel, absorbing light from a very small laser mounted on a pair of frames worn by the user.
Orly Shamir wears the Argus II retinal prosthesis system, a bionic eye that is already on the market.
The laser is aimed into the eye and the chip converts light into electricity that powers the implant. There are no wires, no need to recharge. And it would allow for higher visual resolution than is currently available, another big step forward.
“We’re trying to have an all-in solution,” said Cheriton, who has been working on the project since September.
Ceriton has expertise in turning light into electricity as efficiently as possible and has worked other devices that convert light into electricity, such as solar cells. “This is a little more complicated because you’re working with an eye,” he said.
Users of existing bionic eyes can’t see much more than shapes and light. The ability to identify faces or read is still impossible. That’s what iBIONICS aims to do for people with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that causes degeneration of the rod photoreceptors in the retina and another group of patients with age-related macular degeneration, which causes damage to the macula, a spot near the center of the retina.
The chip has more than 1,000 electrodes.
Current bionic eyes and those nearing the market have 60 to 150 electrodes, said Grant. The Diamond Eye has more than 1,000 electrodes.
“Blindness is devastating,” said Grant. “Our aim is to have people recognize the faces in front of them and lead a more independent life.”
She predicted it will be two years before the bionic eye will be in small-scale clinical trials and five years before it can be considered for FDA approval. Implanting the chip would require surgery that takes about two hours. The implant and surgery would cost about $75,000.
In the meantime, there’s still a lot to learn about how the brain processes the signals it receives. Users of the bionic eye will need training in how to adapt to these signals, said Grant.
Developments in bionic eyes are like innovations in television technology and it won’t be long before resolution improves, said Cheriton. Would it be possible to use the similar technology to augment vision to acquire abilities humans never had before — to see in the dark, say, or have the visual acuity of an eagle? It’s possible, he said.
We’re entering a new era of human-machine interface, said Grant. “We don’t know where this will lead. We’re just beginning. We may be able to use artificial intelligence to relay information that the chip can pick up. Who knows?”
jlaucius@postmedia.com
查看原文...
