Intelligent Bionic Eye is Ready for Human Trial | Melbourne, Australia

Science and technology never fail to amaze us with their new inventions and discovery. 

After researching for more than a decade, a group of researchers and scientists are reportedly happy to announce that they made an artificial bionic eye that can help blind people see the world.

Bionic organs for the human body are not new things. Bionic limbs like hands or legs are readily available in the market in commercial form. But the bionic eye that can eliminate blindness for some groups of blind people is really the coolest and the smartest.

Melbourne, Australia-based Monash University has built an intelligent system that will bypass the damaged optic nerves in the retina(that causes permanent blindness) and transmit the signal directly to the 'view' center of the brain.

This smart bionic eye, aka 'Gennari's bionic vision system,' has two main components, Headgear and Chip.

Headgear will be in front of the eye with the help of some kind of spectacles, and a tiny 9mm Bionic Chip will be implanted in the brain. Though it sounds scary, the good thing is this bionic eye has already been tested on ships, and scientists have found some positive results with negligible side effects. The next trial has been planned on humans now in Melbourne itself.

"Our design creates a visual pattern from combinations of up to 172 spots of light (phosphenes) which provides information for the individual to navigate indoor and outdoor environments, and recognize the presence of people and objects around them.....If successful, the MVG [Monash Vision Group] team will look to create a new commercial enterprise focused on providing a vision to people with untreatable blindness and movement to the arms of people paralyzed by quadriplegia, transforming their health care", Arthur Lowery, professor at Monash University's Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering stated. 

Now, hopefully, if this smart bionic eye works as it reported, it would be a great help and gift to humanity. Though its cost might be prohibitive initially, the same will be drastically reduced over time as technology progresses. Govt can also subsidize and mass produce it to minimize the cost further.