We have all seen or heard of the Bionic Woman series, actually, there have been too many bionic-anything comics or TV shows until now, so many that I can't really name them all here. This is because I would like to talk to you about a more realistic invention, the Bionic Eye from Bionic Vision Australia. There have also been other medical breakthroughs in the bionic field of research until now, but the Bionic Eye is really impressive.

BVA is an alliance of multiple research institutions from Australia, which are currently working on developing an advanced retinal prosthesis. The prototype they have recently announced is not yet ready for its first implementation, according to The Age. Bionic Vision Australia hopes to be able to do the first implementation by 2013.

“This opportunity will allow our team to use its outstanding know-how and expertise to develop a functioning retinal implant that will deliver profound benefits to sufferers of degenerative vision loss such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration,” says Professor Emeritus David Penington AC, Chairman of Bionic Vision Australia.

This newly developed system consists of a small video camera placed on a pair of regular glasses that has the role of capturing images it will afterwards send via wireless to electrodes placed inside the patient's retina. The Bionic Eye consists of 98 electrodes that have the ability to translate the signal from the camera into vision capabilities, by communicating with the nervous system. Though, technically, the patients will be receiving points of light in the visual field, the brain will be able to reconstruct an image around these points.

Other companies are also working on developing technologies that will allow people affected by Retinitis Pigmentosa to one day see again and they are all based on retinal implants. If there is continuity in this field of research, perhaps until 2020, we will have a cure for blindness and other vision impairments that we cannot cure or control in the present.


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