World's First VISORS

[USS Excelsior]

Blind man fitted with 'bionic' eye sees for first time in 30 years


November 27, 2009

http://www.sc-article.co.tv/2009/11/blind-man-fitted-with-bionic-eye-sees.html

A blind man who thought he would never be able to read again has had his vision partially restored after being fitted with a 'bionic' eye.

Peter Lane, 51, is one of the first people in the world to have electronic receivers implanted into his eye which send signals mounted in a pair of glasses to the brain.

The technology has allowed Mr Lane, from Manchester, to see the outline of objects, such as doorways and furniture, and to read letters through a series of dots of lights for the first time in almost 30 years.

http://imgur.com/RF7RK.jpg

 

[Trekker4747]

I believe the rough idea for this has been around for at least a decade, but never in any practical fashion. One of the earliest sets I saw was a VISOR the size of a cinder-block.

 

[Shazam!]

Yeah, they totally have to make them look like VISORS and not glasses.

 

[Praxius]

I believe the rough idea for this has been around for at least a decade, but never in any practical fashion. One of the earliest sets I saw was a VISOR the size of a cinder-block.

I also remember something similar being tested out in the 90's which they directly linked to the visor in TNG, however the images were so basic and low res that everything you saw came in as black and white pixels..... very very broad pixels, ie: a table would be a solid black chunk of pixels, wall would be gray, lighting white, etc.

You could basically see objects around you in a sense, but you couldn't see the details of those objects, let alone their colors. If I remember correctly the information was inputted into the brain similar to how occular implants currently work, ie: little ports/adapters implanted into your skull like LaForge had in his temple areas.

I would suspect this new tech is an offspring from this older device.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Last TV coverage I saw of this, the resolution was 64 x 64 pixels, with hope of getting to 256x256, all monochrome.

Better than nothing, but a long way from "there".

 

[Trekker4747]

Last TV coverage I saw of this, the resolution was 64 x 64 pixels, with hope of getting to 256x256, all monochrome.

Better than nothing, but a long way from "there".

Well, all big ideas have to come from somewhere.

256, huh? Wow, be interesting to see the entire world as an NES game.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

*nod* 256x256 would at least allow for walking, looking at pictures, etc. mmmmmmaybe reading large print books.

That's if it's gray scale. If the signal processing is binary even that many pixels wouldn't be enough to make out most goings on.

Yes, it is a start, and I hope they can eventually get this up to a good workable resolution. Even as it is now, it's a pretty exciting development!