Bionic chip partially restores visual function in Moorfields patient

A patient at Moorfields Eye Hospital has been able to detect signals in her previously blind left eye because of a new implant currently undergoing clinical trials.

The 2mm wide microchip, which researchers hope could partially restore vision for patients with geographic atrophy (GA), was inserted underneath the centre of a patient’s retina via trapdoor surgery.

Special glasses fitted with a video camera connected to a small waist-worn computer then enable the chip to capture a visual scene projected by the glasses and transmit it to the computer.

An artificial intelligence programme processes the visual information and instructs the glasses to focus on what it takes to be the object of focus, before the glasses project this image through the eye to the chip via infrared.