This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle
Thirty-eight patients in Europe received a PRIMA implant in one eye.
I’m always on the lookout for articles or videos about the latest technology to improve vision loss, suffering from it myself. This particular technology consists of a chip implanted in the human eye, designed to provide vision gain using an external camera mounted on a pair of glasses. It allows someone with peripheral vision but no central vision to make things out.
In this particular study, researchers implanted the chip in 38 different people. On average, participants were able to read five more lines on the eye chart, each line getting progressively smaller.
That’s amazing to me because even seeing one line below my current level would be a Herculean feat. I assume it’s the same for these people suffering from low vision.
It reminds me of Ray Kurzweil’s book The Singularity Is Near, where he argues that the technology we have as humans will one day merge with us to create a superhuman. He continues by saying that eventually, we will lose our humanity and human traits and become all cyborg, if I remember correctly. I don’t like that part, but I do subscribe to the idea of using advanced technology to improve our quality of life, like in this case.
I understand it’s not perfect because it requires a chip implanted in your eye as well as an external camera to help you see. But if you’ve ever met or spoken to someone with a visual impairment, you quickly discover that we already have to use a lot of external technology, and usually, it’s very bulky and extremely expensive because it’s in that vertical market.
I have my hopes set high for this kind of study and these trials. To me, it always seems like this field is stagnant, but that’s only because I want it to speed up and come up with a permanent solution for all people with visual impairments.