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On the topic of today, we shall be looking at the blind man's only hope — bionic eye implant and its workings. Blindness is the highest order in the rank of visual impairment. It is a terrible condition and better ever not be imagined! Unfortunately and fortunately, for one reason or the other, it is ravaging the world presently and receiving equal attention. According to press release by the World Health Organization;

An estimated 253 million people live with vision impairment: 36 million are blind and 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment.
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As a result of these staggering figures, efforts are being intensified to bring the situation to a manageable extent. This includes internationally-wide campaigns to sensitive people on the chief causes of blindness, ensuring good personal hygienes as well as abstaining from rubbing eyes with bare hands. Researchers and companies have equally been forthcoming with solutions from their own domains. In this regards, scientific approaches may differ but the goals remain the same and that is; being able to restore sight to the blind. One of such scientific efforts has lead to development of what is called bionic eye or bionic eye implants, which have proven to restore rudimentary vision to those living with blindness through the use of electrodes implanted within the visual pathway.

Approved Bionic Eye Implants & The Type of Blindness They Are Suitable For

Establishing the cause of blindness is essential in knowing whether the available bionic eye implants will be suitable for the patient.

Retinal bionic eye implants are placed into the eyeball itself, and are only suitable for people who have lost their vision from specific diseases such as inherited types of retinal degeneration known as Retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. _Source

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Argus II Retinal Device

To date, only people with degenerative retinal diseases have been eligible to receive a bionic eye. Three retinal bionic eyes have been approved for commercial sale: the Argus II developed in the USA, the Alpha-AMS in Germany, and the IRIS V2 in France. _Source

Mode of Operation of a Typical Bionic Eye — The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System

Normally, in visually healthy people, the process of being able to sight an object starts when light entering the eye is focused onto the retinal surface in the back of the eye by actions of cornea cells and the lens. Light sensitive cells of the retina then generate electrical energy which is sent to the brain via optic nerves for interpretation.

In people with severe impaired vision, this normal natural process is interrupted along the normal visual pathway. This disruption of naturally occurring process is what different bionic eye models seeks to rectify. And each has its unique way of doing this.

In Argus II, which is the first bionic eye model to ever be approved for public use...

A miniature video camera housed in the patient's glasses captures a scene. The video is sent to a small patient-worn computer (i.e., the video processing unit – VPU) where it is processed and transformed into instructions that are sent back to the glasses via a cable. These instructions are transmitted wirelessly to an antenna in the retinal implant. The signals are then sent to the electrode array, which emits small pulses of electricity. These pulses bypass the damaged photoreceptors and stimulate the retina's remaining cells, which transmit the visual information along the optic nerve to the brain, creating the perception of patterns of light. Patients learn to interpret these visual patterns with their retinal implant. _Source.

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Understanding The Widely Held Misconception Between Prosthetic Eye And Bionic Eye

More often than not, the term bionic eye has been used interchangeably to refer to prosthetic eye (otherwise also known as artificial eyes or glass eyes) and vice versa. This is a misconception. There is no similarity whatsoever between bionic eye and prosthetic eye. If there is ever a similarity between these two, it has to be on the basis of eye shape and nothing more.

In essence and to put the record straight, prosthetic eye implantation involves total removal of biological eye from its socket and replacement with a glass eye or artificial eye. Conditions giving rise to decision to replace entire eyes may be as a result of trauma, unbearable pain, disease or physical disfigurement. This is done to achieve cosmetic goals. Where as bionic eye implants are integrated to work within the existing biological eye settings to achieve functional vision goals.

Conclusion

Currently, as good as a bionic eye implant is meant to look, it doesn't aid restoration of total vision in the actual sense of it. There are some observed limitations which are attributed to their relatively small number of electrodes. To see clearly, one needs at least a million electrodes. It is hoped that companies would improve on the currently available bionic eye implants in the future by increasing their number of electrodes.

Thanks for reading.

NB:Conclusion image credit

References For Further Reading

Ref1, Ref2, and Ref3

NEWBIE'S BONUS

Don't give up. Success is within reach only if you persevere

Starting out in any endeavor in life is always not easy. And so expecting otherwise is therefore an indirect expression of unreadiness in pursuit of any worthwhile goals. This has been the core definition of my person. So in any endeavor I find myself, I usually stayed back even when everyone has left to see if there would ever be a chance for success. Only when all indicators turn red that I would throw in the towel. I am grateful to God that I didn't give up in the face of initial challenges.

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