[nfb-talk] Fw: Implanted chip 'allows blind people to detectobjects'

[Jennifer Aberdeen]

Thank God!

This is great news!
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenneth Chrane" <kenneth.chrane at verizon.net>
To: <CSDB-ALUMNI at googlegroups.com>
Cc: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 8:21 AM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Fw: Implanted chip 'allows blind people to 
detectobjects'


> What do you think about this Article?
> Ken Chrane
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Lela Behee
> To: venetian-blind at googlegroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 2:38 AM
> Subject: Implanted chip 'allows blind people to detect objects'
>
>
> Though this may not be helpful for those of us who have prosthetic eyes 
> and so have no retina, what a very exciting leap forward this is in 
> technology!
> Praise our Lord!!
>
>
> 2 November 2010 Last updated at 20:49 ET
> Implanted chip 'allows blind people to detect objects'
> By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News
>
> Miikka Terho is given the task of reading letters which together misspell 
> his
> own name
> A man with an inherited form of blindness has been able to identify 
> letters and
> a clock face using a pioneering implant, researchers say.
> Miikka Terho, 46, from Finland, was fitted with an experimental chip 
> behind his
> retina in Germany. Success was also reported in other patients.
>
> The chip allows a patient to detect objects with their eyes, unlike a 
> rival
> approach that uses an external camera.
>
> Details of the work are in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
>
> Professor Eberhart Zrenner, of Germany's University of Tuebingen, and 
> colleagues
> at private company Retina Implant AG initially tested their sub-retinal 
> chip on
> 11 people.
> Some noticed no improvement as their condition was too advanced to benefit 
> from
> the implant, but a majority were able to pick out bright objects, Prof 
> Zrenner
> told the BBC.
>
> However, it was only when the chip was placed further behind the retina, 
> in the
> central macular area in three people, that they achieved the best results.
>
> Two of these had lost their vision because of the inherited condition 
> retinitis
> pigmentosa, or RP, the other because of a related inherited condition 
> called
> choroideraemia.
>
> RP leads to the progressive degeneration of cells in the eye's retina, 
> resulting
> in night blindness, tunnel vision and then usually permanent blindness. 
> The
> symptoms can begin from early childhood.
>
> The best results were achieved with Mr Terho, who was able to recognise 
> cutlery
> and a mug on a table, a clock face and discern seven different shades of 
> grey.
> He was also able to move around a room independently and approach people.
>
> In further tests he read large letters set out before him, including his 
> name,
> which had been deliberately misspelled. He soon noticed it had been spelt 
> in the
> same way as the Finnish racing driver Mika Hakkinnen.
>
> Three or four days after the implantation, when everything was healed, I 
> was
> like wow, there's activity," he told the BBC from his home in Finland.
> "Right after that, if my eye hit the light, then I was able to see 
> flashes, some
> activity which I hadn't had.
>
> "Then day after day when we started working with it, practising, then I 
> started
> seeing better and better all the time."
>
> Soon Mr Terho was able to read letters by training his mind to bring the
> component lines that comprised the letters together.
>
> The prototype implant has now been removed, but he has been promised an 
> upgraded
> version soon. He says it can make a difference to his life.
>
> "What I realised in those days was that it was such a great feeling to 
> focus on
> something," he says.
>
> "Even having a limited ability to see with the chip, it will be good for
> orientation, either walking somewhere or being able to see that something 
> is
> before you even if you don't see all the tiny details of the object."
>
> Electrical impulses
> The chip works by converting light that enters the eye into electrical 
> impulses
> which are fed into the optic nerve behind the eye.
>
> It is externally powered and in the initial study was connected to a cable 
> which
> protruded from the skin behind the ear to connect with a battery.
>
> The team are now testing an upgrade in which the device is all contained 
> beneath
> the skin, with power delivered though the skin via an external device that 
> clips
> behind the ear.
>
> This is by no means the only approach being taken by scientists to try to
> restore some visual ability to people with retinal dysfunction - what's 
> called
> retinal dystrophy.
>
> A rival chip by US-based Second Sight that sits on top of the retina has 
> already
> been implanted in patients, but that technique requires the patient to be 
> fitted
> with a camera fixed to a pair of glasses.
>
> Charities gave the news of the latest work a cautious welcome.
>
> David Head, of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, said: "It's 
> really
> fascinating work, but it doesn't restore vision. It rather gives people 
> signals
> which help them to interpret."
>
> Peoria Blind Center
> www.peoriablindcenter.org
> Here is the name of the group on facebook: PeoriArea Blind People's 
> Center.  Your friends on facebook are going to have to get on
> their facebook account and search for the group's name to join, or to see 
> what we are about.
>
>
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