New Glasses And Eye Implant Restore Loss Of Vision

Over five million people are affected by age-related macular degeneration, which can make reading, driving, and the recognition of faces impossible.

A new wireless retinal implant has now restored functional sight to patients in advanced stages of the disease.

The system consists of a specially designed pair of glasses that uses a camera to capture images and transmit them wirelessly to a tiny chip implanted in the retina that then stimulates surviving neurons.

Researchers at Science Corporation, builder of the device, are also developing a second-generation implant that will have more than 10,000 pixels, which could support close to normal levels of visual activity.