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February 11, 2020 10:00 am

A New Implant For Blind People Jacks Directly Into the Brain

Researchers have successfully bypassed the eyes with a brain implant that allows rudimentary vision. MIT Technology Review reports: "Alli," says Bernardeta Gomez in her native Spanish, pointing to a large black line running across a white sheet of cardboard propped at arm's length in front of her. "There." It isn't exactly an impressive feat for a 57-year-old woman -- except that Gomez is blind. And she's been that way for over a decade. When she was 42, toxic optic neuropathy destroyed the bundles of nerves that connect Gomez's eyes to her brain, rendering her totally without sight. She's unable even to detect light. But after 16 years of darkness, Gomez was given a six-month window during which she could see a very low-resolution semblance of the world represented by glowing white-yellow dots and shapes. This was possible thanks to a modified pair of glasses, blacked out and fitted with a tiny camera. The contraption is hooked up to a computer that processes a live video feed, turning it into electronic signals. A cable suspended from the ceiling links the system to a port embedded in the back of Gomez's skull that is wired to a 100-electrode implant in the visual cortex in the rear of her brain. Using this, Gomez identified ceiling lights, letters, basic shapes printed on paper, and people. She even played a simple Pac-Man-like computer game piped directly into her brain. Four days a week for the duration of the experiment, Gomez was led to a lab by her sighted husband and hooked into the system. Gomez's first moment of sight, at the end of 2018, was the culmination of decades of research by Eduardo Fernandez, director of neuroengineering at the University of Miguel Hernandez, in Elche, Spain. His goal: to return sight to as many as possible of the 36 million blind people worldwide who wish to see again. Fernandez's approach is particularly exciting because it bypasses the eye and optical nerves.

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