Scientists working on cures for blindness tend to focus on the obvious
tar-get--the eye. That's what researchers at Johns Hopkins, whose
computer-chip-in-the-eye treatment raised Stevie Wonder's hope of
seeing, did. But such chips promise to help only people whose blindness
results from damage to the retina. This week, biophysicist William
Dobelle of the Dobelle Institute in New York reports, in ASAIO Journal, a
system to help any of the 1.1 million Americans who are legally blind,
regardless of the cause. A mini-camera mounted on sunglasses captures
images that are processed by a 10-pound computer; the signals then run
through a cable to 68 electrodes implanted in the visual cortex. The
electrodes stimulate the brain, producing an array of bright spots good
enough for 20/400 vision--and for navigating sidewalks. Dobelle plans to
make it commercially available this year. The expected price if the
procedure becomes routine: $50,000. More than a Seeing Eye dog (some
$40,000), but electrodes don't eat. |