Artificial vision for the blind was once the stuff of science fiction. Now, however, a limited form of artificial vision is nearing reality. The Dobelle Institute, Commack, N.Y., is working on creating a new cornea–which will allow light into the eye’s interior–through technology. It is using a digital camera mounted on glasses to capture an image and send it to a small computer on a patient’s belt. The images are processed and sent to electrodes implanted in the patient’s visual cortex. The electrodes stimulate the brain, producing a pattern of bright spots that form an image. The technology “may not work for people blinded as children or as infants, because the visual cortex did not develop normally,” explains Bill Dobelle. “But, I would say [it will work] for the vast majority of the blind–98 to 99%.”

The black-and-white image is not solid, but resembles a dot matrix pattern. It’s like looking at a sport scoreboard with different light patterns illuminated to show different scores. Miniaturization of equipment and more-powerful computers has made this artificial vision possible, but it is expensive. The operation, equipment, and necessary training cost $70,000 per patient. Eight experimental surgeries have been performed in Portugal, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the procedure.

Other researchers are focusing on new technology to replace damaged retinas, the part of the eye that converts light into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain to be turned into images. Optobionics Corp., Wheaton, Ill., says six blind or nearly blind people can now see light and some can see shapes after having its artificial retina implanted. NASA hopes to begin human testing this year on ceramic detectors that could be implanted in the retina to take over the job of damaged retinal cells. Meanwhile, the Office of Naval Research goes one step further, indicating it is on the way to developing a chip that would replicate the entire nerve center of the retina.