How hard would it be to make a proper artificial eye?

[Gingerbread Demon]

How hard would it be to make a proper artificial eye that is self contained, no external glasses or camera? Currently that's the kind of thing being trialled with selected patients, and while they all work the resolution is b/w and very low resolution....

it's a start but what kind of leaps would we need to make to get a better result?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Well, it must be pretty hard since we haven't done it yet.

The biggest hurdles surround interacting with the optic nerve. Keep in mind that it's made up of 700,000+ nerve fibers, and you'd have to be able to talk to most of those properly in order to produce a usable image.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Well, it must be pretty hard since we haven't done it yet.

The biggest hurdles surround interacting with the optic nerve. Keep in mind that it's made up of 700,000+ nerve fibers, and you'd have to be able to talk to most of those properly in order to produce a usable image.

Yeah that is true.....

I am fascinated by CCD devices and often wondered why they can't be put say over or under a retina and mapped to each rod and cone that way.... But as you say 700,000 nerve fibers. I wonder if they have a pixel map?

EDIT: Just found this interesting article..

http://www.livescience.com/22373-an-artificial-eye-that-can-see.html

 

[intrinsical]

It is indeed a pixel map. However, its really difficult to hook up electronics with the optic nerves. So typically, what's done these day is to attach a bunch of several thousand optic nerves to one of the pixels via a wire. This method only allow us to attach a small number of pixels, hence the low resolution.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

It is indeed a pixel map. However, its really difficult to hook up electronics with the optic nerves. So typically, what's done these day is to attach a bunch of several thousand optic nerves to one of the pixels via a wire. This method only allow us to attach a small number of pixels, hence the low resolution.

Ah.... explains a lot..

If only life were like TV ...

Steve Austin got a bionic eye haha.. But it took up half his skull