Helping the blind to see. It’s the latest accomplishment of that microcosm of electronic circuitry, the mighty
microchip. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Scientists are currently
developing implantable microchips that can restore vision to blind people. One trial patient has already seen the
results.
“He said that at first he couldn’t exactly make out what the image that he was seeing was, and then he got all
excited because he realized it was an ‘H’. Being able to see something after being blind for a number of years is
very exciting.”
Dr. Santa Tumminia is with the Foundation Fighting Blindness. She says that the vision cells that have died off in
a blind person will be replaced by implanted microchips, that receive signals from a tiny camera.
“Which is a camera that sits on a pair of eye-glasses and this receives signals, and it transmits these signals to
this chip which is implanted in the eye.”
This device could help the millions of people who suffer from diseases of the retina, but even people who’ve
been blind from birth or lost their vision due to an accident may benefit. For them, a different type of chip would
be implanted, not in the eye but in the brain, where the electrical impulses generated by light are converted into
visual images. These people would need to have some remaining light-receiving cells in their eyes, and in any
case could not expect “instant vision.”
“In those patients that are born blind, there’s a question of how long would it take to actually teach your brain
to see, because your brain needs to be trained how to convert those images that it receives into an actual
picture that you can understand.”
The first seeing eye devices are expected to be ready for clinical trials in two to five years. Pulse of the Planet is
presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National
Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.