Partial sight has been restored to six blind people through an implant that transmits video images from a camera directly to the brain.
Specialists at Baylor Medical College in Texas and the University of California Los Angeles developed electrodes implanted in the brain’s visual cortex that received images from a glasses-mounted camera.
The technology bypassed the eye and the optic nerve, the normal route for the transmission of sensory information to the brain.
Study participants experienced some level of vision where none had previously been possible. They were asked to look at a black computer screen and identify a white square appearing randomly at different locations.
The technology has not yet been proven to provide any level of sight to those born blind.