A Look Into The Future: Dream Vision

If you stumble in places which are dimly lit or find it difficult to make out colours instantly, you may suffer from retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive group of inherited eye diseases that can turn your colourful life into monochrome.

Retinitis pigmentosa (commonly referred to as RP) affects millions in the early stages of life, and is a major cause of blindness under the age of 60.

But now there is hope for those who have these symptoms.

Researchers based in Sylmar, California, US, are working on a retinal prosthesis system, a device that can be implanted into a person’s eye to correct his vision.

"The research is in the clinical stage for the next generation Argus II which will be made available in at least three years," wrote Brian Mech, Senior Director of Business Development, Second Sight Medical Products Inc, in an e-mail to XPRESS.

"Since we will be the first company to commercialise the product globally, we are unable to give you any details at the moment on the implant of the device," Mech said.

But on the basis of anonymity, another company official said: "The next generation Argus II retinal stimulator is being designed with 60 independently controllable electrodes that will help the implanted person see images with higher resolution.

"The Argus II implant consists of an array of electrodes that are attached to the retina and used in conjunction with an external camera and video processing system to provide a rudimentary form of sight to implanted subjects."

Second Sight conducted the trial of the first generation implant – Argus 16, which has 16 electrodes – on six people with RP between 2002 and 2004.

RP patients were able to detect when lights were on or off, describe an object’s motion, count distinct items, as well as locate and differentiate between basic objects in an environment. Five of these subjects are now using their Argus 16 retinal prostheses at home.

Argus II

The device consists of a tiny camera and transmitter mounted in eye glasses, an implanted receiver and an electrode-studded array.

The camera on the glasses captures an image and sends the information to the video processor, which converts the image into an electronic signal and sends it to the transmitter on the glasses.

The implanted receiver receives this data and sends the signals through a tiny cable to the electrode array, stimulating it to emit electrical pulses which travel to the brain and can be interpreted by the patient.