Bionic eyes let blind man sort socks

Posted by Rob Beschizza, March 4, 2009 5:03 PM | permalink

A man fitted with bionic eyes can see light for the first time in 30 years. From the BBC:

Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London's Moorfield's eye hospital.
He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks, using the bionic eye, known as Argus II.

It uses a camera and video processor mounted on sunglasses to send captured images wirelessly to a tiny receiver on the outside of the eye.

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Metostopholes , March 4, 2009 6:48 PM

Did he lose his real ones in the robot wars?

(sorry)

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#2 posted by Rob Beschizza

, March 4, 2009 6:57 PM

Nah. Stone burner in the Falklands.

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#3 posted by jaruzek , March 4, 2009 10:10 PM

Pfft, sunglasses. Let me know when I can get a visor.

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#4 posted by Anonymous , March 5, 2009 1:16 AM

Ehh, reposting an advert as news? As the advert says, this has been done for a fair few people, and it just happens that the BBC are about to show a documentary about him.

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#5 posted by AirPillo , March 5, 2009 1:59 AM

I saw this tech on Scientific American Frontiers years ago.

What's the resolution of the image he sees? Back then it was basically like translating the world into an on/off array of 16x16 white LEDs due to the low fidelity of the brain implant connection.

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#6 posted by kaiza , March 5, 2009 3:52 AM

http://qwantz.com/archive/001421.html

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#7 posted by monstrinho_do_biscoito , March 5, 2009 7:08 AM

i for one, welcome our new cyborg overlords.

/tho i'm a bit a bit disappointed that the eye doesn't look more borg-like

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#8 posted by Trilby , March 5, 2009 7:41 AM

One step closer to a steampunk mech-eye a la Garrett.

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#9 posted by strider_mt2k

, March 5, 2009 8:16 AM

A boon to injured laundry workers everywhere...

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#10 posted by JArmstrong , March 5, 2009 2:24 PM

G'yaah!
I just wreckermended this (other topically related) link to BB: http://vimeo.com/3481857?pg=embed&sec=

From site:
"Take a one eyed film maker, an unemployed engineer, and a vision for something that's never been done before and you have yourself the EyeBorg Project."

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#11 posted by Chrs , March 5, 2009 4:36 PM

Ah, #10! You beat me to it! Still, I figure dropping the link to the Reuters article is worth it.