DrLauren

Hi everyone, great to be here! Great question. The vision provided by the bionic eye is very different to natural vision. It is formed by "phosphenes" or spots of light, which will be lower resolution than that provided by the fovea normally. The electrodes are implanted near the fovea (central part of the eye), and so it doesn't affect the peripheral vision. And as we only implant one eye, there is no problem with dominance between eyes.

I actually had to go back and watch the "Six Million Dollar Man" when I started this project! Have now become a bit of a science fiction expert ;) I have always been fascinated with science, and love my career in medical research.

The Cybathlon looks fantastic! For those who haven't heard of it: http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/ At the moment there are no vision competition categories, but we hope there will be in the future!

As researchers, we never say never! However, it is unlikely that a bionic eye would be a good option for you. There are 2 reasons for this - the eye has never developed properly, and so the connections between the brain and eye would not be formed correctly. Secondly, the vision provided by the devices at the moment would not be as good as your good eye, and so it would not be a useful addition.

Unfortunately not. Our device is a retinal prosthesis, which means that the connections between the eye and the brain must be relatively intact. Retinal bionic eyes are most appropriate for people who have degenerative retinal disease such as retinitis pigmentosa and choroideremia. In the future, it is hoped that people with age related macular degeneration might be able to be helped.