Bionic Eyes

Written by Jason Bellows on 15 November 2005

In 2002 researchers in Austraila announced the creation of a bionic eye. That model required the user to wear a pair of spectacles with a camera that would transmit signals to a retinal implant that was made up of an array of 16 eletrodes. The results were as expected with those trials. The image resolution was 10×10, and allowed the user to know if their surroundings were dark or light, and detect some movement.

2003 saw 3 people in the US fitted with a bionic eye.

Now the newer model is fit to be tested. It is the same basic device, but instead of the handful of electrodes that allow 10×10, the upgrade has 50 to 100 electrode sensors. It still won’t provide normal vision, but as said by Professor Dagnelie:

“We are hoping this will be enough for the person to be able to make their way through a building, find a door or window and avoid obstacles for example.

“To us, the images look very basic but for someone who was previously blind they are a massive step forward.”

Old article describing model with 10×10 resolution.
2005 Article


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#1 rk_cr 16 November 2005 at 12:03 am

Is it just me or does 10 x 10 feel like way too little after worrying about monitor resolutions?

#2 MeasureMan 16 November 2005 at 02:56 am

With a little improvement on the resolution, the world will look like “Gunfighter” on the Atari 2600.

#3 Josh Harding 16 November 2005 at 05:29 am

This is wonderful…Soon every blind person will be wearing hair clips over their eyes!!!

#4 Arby 16 November 2005 at 09:58 am

Am I missing something? How is 50-100 electrodes better than 10×10? 10×10 =100.

#5 rk_cr 16 November 2005 at 11:34 am

My guess is that one pixel != one electrode, especially since it says the original 10×10 resolution was using only “a handful of electrodes”

#6 rp2 06 December 2005 at 01:05 pm

The Article said: “…required the the user to wear …”

Sorry, couldn’t help it.

#7 Mineh 05 April 2006 at 03:27 am

rp2 said: “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”

wow, I must be really sick i always get the dirty jokes right away lmao XD

#8 Drakvil 08 January 2007 at 10:01 pm

Arby said: “Am I missing something? How is 50-100 electrodes better than 10×10? 10×10 =100.”

I was about to comment on the same thing – but instead I re-read the article and saw that the original is 16 electrodes providing the 10 x 10 display. So if you increase the number of electrodes by a multiple of 3-5, you should see quite an improvement in the resolution. That’s probably a jump similar to going from Atari 2600 to VGA.

#9 rev.felix 20 March 2007 at 07:31 am

rp2 said: “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Umm… I don’t get it.

#10 Sacred Junk 29 July 2008 at 02:48 am

rev.felix said: “Umm… I don’t get it.”

‘the the’ was originally written in the article

#11 DanThinksDances&femaleGspot 22 September 2008 at 10:28 pm

Enter your reply text here. ok

MeasureMan said: “With a little improvement on the resolution, the world will look like “Gunfighter” on the Atari 2600.”

How about the Odessy.

rp2 said: “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Mineh said: “wow, I must be really sick i always get the dirty jokes right away lmao XD”

How be that a dirty joke? Forget it.

#12 RoflBeard 12 January 2010 at 04:32 am

I’m afraid I don’t have refernece for this but maybe someone else does.
Anyway I heard that they can now cure blindness in one eye (so long as the other (eye) is ok)
something to do with re growing the stem cells of the retina from the good eye in the blind one.
Amazing eh, will humans one day end up living for 100’s of years? I truly hope this will happen within my lifetime….would love to see what the future brings.

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Bionic Eyes