Researchers reported today that they're moving forward with plans to test a second generation model of a retinal implant that could allow blind people to see light and dark.
That may not seem like a lot, but it would be a revolution for blind people who must navigate the world using the sense of touch, University of Southern California professor Dr. Mark Humayun told an audience at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.
Six patients received implants during the test of an earlier edition and 50-75 are slated to get the new edition, Humayan said. The thing works by relaying information about images from a camera inside a pair of glasses to the retina.
(For more information, check out this Wired News story from last year.)
A couple caveats: Humayun (that's him in the photo) said it will be at least a couple years before the device could be available on the market, and that sounds pretty optimistic to me. And it won't be cheap: Humayun told me that it could cost at least $30,000.
On tap for the future: a model that would allow people to see a lot more than shapes and light and dark.
This USC press release has more information.
