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Bionic Eye can cure blindness.

DaikunDaikun
edited February 2013 in Technology
Some sweet new tech was tested on nine patients whose eye vision had degenerated to the point of blindness, and six of the patients were able to see again.

There are a few drawbacks (poor resolution, cannot detect fast movement, can only see in black and white), but this is still the beginning of something significant. Baby steps...
Post edited by Daikun on
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Comments

  • AprecheApreche
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
  • AmpAmp
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
    Why would you do that! Don't get him started again!
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
    Why would you do that! Don't get him started again!
    Isn't that pretty much what Geordi LaForge had from Star Trek: First Contact and onward? :)
  • AmpAmp
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
    Why would you do that! Don't get him started again!
    Isn't that pretty much what Geordi LaForge had from Star Trek: First Contact and onward? :)
    There is a big difference between Geordi LaForge and Scott.
  • AprecheApreche
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
    Why would you do that! Don't get him started again!
    Isn't that pretty much what Geordi LaForge had from Star Trek: First Contact and onward? :)
    There is a big difference between Geordi LaForge and Scott.
    Point the first, Scott is a real person.
  • AmpAmp
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
    Why would you do that! Don't get him started again!
    Isn't that pretty much what Geordi LaForge had from Star Trek: First Contact and onward? :)
    There is a big difference between Geordi LaForge and Scott.
    Point the first, Scott is a real person.
    Counter point Geordi has not been born yet.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    Cross this with Google Glass and then you may have something. :)
    Why would you do that! Don't get him started again!
    Isn't that pretty much what Geordi LaForge had from Star Trek: First Contact and onward? :)
    There is a big difference between Geordi LaForge and Scott.
    Point the first, Scott is a real person.
    Counter point Geordi has not been born yet.
    Counter counter point: I'm pretty sure Scott has said on numerous occasions that he would willingly chuck any of his biological parts for superior bionics/cybernetics.

    Me, I'm a bit squicky on the whole cybernetic issue except in the case of repairing injuries, deformities, illnesses, and so on. On the flip side, I'm all for genetic modification to produce superior biological organs, so I'm a bit odd like that.
  • AmpAmp
    I always worry about a Theseus's ship situation.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    I always worry about a Theseus's ship situation.
    That's part of the whole thing that squicks me out about excessive cybernetics. For some reason, I don't consider genetic modification to fall into the same trap -- perhaps because it's simply instructing the body itself to modify itself, as opposed to artificially replacing body parts.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    The only part I'm really worried about is the brain.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    The only part I'm really worried about is the brain.
    You'd make an excellent Cyberman then.
  • GregGreg
    The only part I'm really worried about is the brain.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited February 2013
    The only part I'm really worried about is the brain.
    You'd make an excellent Cyberman then.
    If that didn't also involve brain modifications I'd be totally up for it.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    The only part I'm really worried about is the brain.
    You'd make an excellent Cyberman then.
    If that didn't also involve brain modifications I'd be totally up for it.
    Well, the only modifications are suppression of emotions, otherwise they just scoop your brain out and put it in a robot body.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Yeah, no thanks re. suppression of emotions.
  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    I'd be fine with an unmodified brain in a robot body. They're working on prosthetics with a sense of touch!
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm just trying to live long enough for Jameson-style brain-in-a-box. After that it's just a waiting game.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    I'd be fine with an unmodified brain in a robot body. They're working on prosthetics with a sense of touch!
    I know. I had a summer job working with a team that did that stuff back in college.

    I'm fuzzier on unmodified brain in a robot body unless said robot body is externally indistinguishable from an organic body (though with a robot body, presumably you could have "options" on how realistic it looks, kinda like a car's paint job) and allows for at minimum all the same sorts of sensations I'd enjoy from an organic body. I wouldn't want to end up like Metallo, for example.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Typical Luke thread title musings:

    Is this really a "cure" for blindness? It allows someone blind to see something, but does that make it a cure? For me, a curing someone with a broken leg involves their leg getting better. Putting someone in a wheelchair is not a cure for the broken leg. Right?
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Is an organ transplant a cure?
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    It's certainly a fix. Not sure if it's a cure. A bionic eye really doesn't seem to fit the "cure" label for me.
  • RymRym
    Cybernetic legs that are fully functional (sensory, control, performance) replacements for natural legs are, in my eyes, a cure for a missing leg.
  • WalkerWalker
    I have found a solution to food shortages.

  • ChurbaChurba
    I agree. It does not heal, it replaces. It's a prosthetic, not a regenerated limb or organ - I mean, Oscar Pistorius can run better than the vast majority of the population and his prosthetics have superior energy return and running characteristics to our human legs, yet we don't call his blades "A cure for leglessness."

    Okay, not the best turn of phrase I've ever made, but you get the idea.
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    image
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I prefer to think more along the lines of this:
    image
  • GauntletWizardGauntletWizard
    I always worry about a Theseus's ship situation.
    The ship of Theseus has two simple solutions: Either the original parts are sacred, in which case you're a whole new person every 20 years, or the ship is a contiguous 4-dimensional object, in which case you can replace with mechanical components all you want, so long as you do it slowly.
  • trogdor9trogdor9
    I agree. It does not heal, it replaces. It's a prosthetic, not a regenerated limb or organ - I mean, Oscar Pistorius can run better than the vast majority of the population and his prosthetics have superior energy return and running characteristics to our human legs, yet we don't call his blades "A cure for leglessness."

    Okay, not the best turn of phrase I've ever made, but you get the idea.
    Cochlear implants are considered to be a prosthetic, and that's basically the same idea but for hearing rather than seeing. Similar to the cochlear implant situation, bionic eyes will only be useful if implanted into the very young or people who were born seeing but went blind later. Ocular implants are unlikely to have the same cultural impact as cochlear implants, however - there's no blind equivalent to Deaf culture.
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