CURING BLINDNESS [ back to What's New ]
When facial trauma causes sufficient damage to eye structures such as the retina, blindness results because of dysfunction in the machinery for registering the dots of light (of which images are made), converting them to neural impulses and sending them to occipital lobes at the back of the brain for re-processing into color images. After 30 years of work Dr. William Dobelle (bio-medical inventor and professor at Columbia University School of Medicine in New York) has created a working prototype of an artificial visions system. In a remarkable demonstration, Dr. Dobelle's patient (who was rendered legally blind by injury) was able to read large type words, pick out  objects against a contrasting background, and safely navigate his way onto a subway from the platform without assistance. The system he used, and which he trained on extensively before the demonstration, consist of a miniature light sensor and ultrasonic distance sensor built into a pair of glasses, which transmit data through a cable along the eyeglass frame to a tiny computer worn on the hip. The computer pre-processes the data, and transmits it through another cable to a series of electrodes implanted directly onto the surface of the patient's occipital lobes through a small hole drilled in his skull. His occipital lobes take it from there, and recreate simplified, black and white (only) images of the world. Dr. Dobelle was confident he could refine the device and vastly increase its resolution over time. For more information check out the website for the Dobelle Institute at http://www.dobelle.com