shop4patents Blog

Scientists in Germany have invented a bionic wireless eyeball that restores vision to the blind. Patients who have lost their vision due to retinal damage or disease can have their vision restored with the German bionic eyeball, according to a report in Sify News.

The bionic eyeball, which is a result of 12 years of research, is fully implantable. Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems, located in the Duisburg region, say that this bionic visual prosthesis successfully bypasses a damaged retina.

Along with the implant the system also has an eyeglass frame that has an external transmitter. There is a telemetric link between the eyeglass frame and the implant that transfers data and energy. The bionic eyeball has 3-D electrodes that are like small studs that rest against the retina which stimulate cells. The system then interprets these stimulation signals from image patterns, according to the Sify report.

If there isn’t any optic nerve damage to the eye then the system can send vision signals to the brain, in much the same way as a healthy eye does. In tests done at the Fraunhofer Institute patients who had been blind for years were able to see geometric patterns and spots of light, when nerve cells were stimulated in particular ways.

Germany’s Education and Research Ministry has funded the bionic eyeball project. The researchers behind the project are Hoc Kheim Trieu, Dmichael Goertz and Ingo Krisch.

The researchers said that the project reached an important milestone when the system was functioning wirelessly and was able to be controlled with remote control, according to the Sify report.

As the researchers have developed the system they have been able to come up with designs that are smaller and more flexible, and ones that fit more comfortably in the eye and perform at a higher rate.

The German scientists will receive the 2008 Joseph von Franuhofer Prize for their achievements.