Helping the Blind See
Losing Your Sight
Millions of people cannot fully use their senses and enjoy life. Since humans depend on their sight for 80 percent of their information, losing the ability to see can forever change a person's life. Yet many people have greatly reduced vision, even though they are not completely blind. In the United States. 6 million people are either blind or suffer from diseases to the retina. Luckily, a new procedure using cu ng edge technology is giving some people hope Scientists implant tiny electrical chips into a damaged eye
Artificial Retina Instead of repairing a damaged retina, some scientists are trying to assist bad eyes using technology. If successful, this three-year research project that puts electrodes in the eye will be able to restore sight. One woman, Barbara Campbell, is part of this experiment. When Campbell started suffering from an eye disease in her 30s, the loss of vision was devastating. Now the 56-year-old woman has tiny electrodes inside her retina. The electrodes were surgically implanted into her eyes. They basically work by electrically "activating" neural cells in the eye. However, Campbell can only see objects that radiate a lot of heat. These include the gas burner on her stove, computer monitors and of course, lights in the ceiling.
Retina To understand how our eyesight work we need to examine the retina. Inside the eye, the retina acts like a "light collector, collecting light from the image we see. The retina has about 120 million tiny cells. If a person is looking at a bicycle, the retina processes these images. Tiny cones and rods inside the retina act as receptors for the light. The image of the bicycle is transmitted from simple light signals into electrical signals. These signals are passed on to the brain, letting us see the image as an object that we call a bicycle.
Awkward Technology However, the technology that allows people like Campbell to improve their vision is not perfect. In addition to the electrodes in her eyes, the New York resident has to walk around every day with clunky machinery. There is a small camera taped to her nose. Additionally, a video processor is strapped to her waist to coordinate the signal. Seeing different colors is also impossible due to the crude sensors. However, scientists think in the future they will develop technology that will allow people like Campbell to read, write and recognize faces.