Tech Tuesday: Seeing into the Future

Tech Tuesday: 
Cause lets be honest, who wants to read about football all week?

Breakthrough of the Week:
Duke University researchers will soon be offering their first-generation bionic eyes to blind people.

Why did they do it?
Because there a lot of blind people who want to see, ya dufus. Sight is arguably the most important of the human senses and is increasingly necessary in a world that it seems is becoming more inconvenient for the visually impaired.  Since the invention of bifocals, innovations aiding the blind have been relatively stagnant, but it seems the next big leap is ready to be made, especially considering the device is already successfully being used in Europe (looking at you FDA).



How did they do it?
There are cells in the back of our eyes called retinal cells, which receive light patterns and translate them into sensory action potentials to the brain. Certain people who suffer from blindness actually have lost function of these retinal cells.

How this device works is by using an array of electrodes implanted in the retina of the patient. Basically the patient wears a camera on a pair of glasses, this video is converted digitally in a small computer on the patient's belt, and that video is transmitted via the retinal implant, named the Argus II. The next step for the Argus III is to make it all wireless.

How will this affect my life?
The blind will see. I'm assuming if you're reading this you aren't blind, but who knows. Eventually we will grow old, and some of us will lose our ability to see.

Look to the future,
Love,

Nate