Science fiction provides some good examples of bionic vision. The main character in the 1970s television show, The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin, had a bionic eye implanted, along with bionic limbs, after he was involved in a horrific crash of a test plane. This bionic eye had a zoom lens and could do both night vision and thermal imaging. Another example of bionic vision is from StarTrek: The Next Generation. The character of Chief Engineer, Geordi LaForge, who was born blind, is able to see via a prosthetic that is attached to his temples and interfaces with his brain. This prosthetic allows him to see both the visible light of the electromagnetic spectrum and other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye can’t see.
Wouldn’t it be nice if either Steve Austin’s or Geordi LaForge’s bionic vision was a reality. Well, there are devices out there that allow those with certain types vision loss to see. While they don’t allow a person to see the electromagnetic spectrum or zoom in on sights a mile away, these devices help people to see, read and navigate their world.
eSight Eyewear
This is a wearable electronic camera system that enhances residual vision in persons with central vision loss. While it looks like something the Terminator would wear, it can help those with visual acuity from 20/60 to 20/800 achieve 20/20 vision. This device can help those with age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, Stargardt disease, uveitis, and optic nerve hypoplasia.
It works by continuously capturing the surrounding environment in high definition. The device uses clinically validated algorithms to achieve images of the best quality, which are displayed through two high resolution OLED monitors placed in front of the wearer’s eyes. These augmented images stimulate photoreceptors that are still functioning. That enhances the synaptic nerve signals to the brain and improves visual perception.
A study of eSight Eyewear was done in the United States and Canada to evaluate the short-and-long-term effects of the device. The study had 51 participants who had various vision diseases, such as Stargardt disease, dry age-related macular degeneration, optic atrophy, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, retinitis pigmentosa and other vision diseases. They had visual acuity ranging from 20/60 to 20/400.
Data was collected at three occasions in this study, baseline, device fitting and after three months of daily use. What the study found was at the device fitting there was an improvement of seven lines on the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) chart and mean acuity went from 20/159 to 20/43. Participants also saw improvements in reading accessibility and contrast sensitivity and these enhancements were sustained after three months of daily use.
BlinkIT™
Whereas the eSight Eyewear is worn like spectacles, the BlinkIT™ utilize something much smaller. This device is a patch that is applied to the eyelid and it works with a contact lens or eye implant. The patch provides power and transmits images in augmented reality to the wearer’s view via a miniaturized curved LED screen.
BlinkIT™ works wirelessly with a mobile app and its aim is to overcome the current limitation of smart contact lenses, which include battery life, communication range and data transfer. It is also built to work with any ocular device and allows for extended wearing time with the least amount of discomfort. This is very important since many electronic vision aids are bulky and not very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. It currently shows messages sent to the patch from a mobile phone. The company is working on the next generation which can be used in humans, whereby images are sent by the patch to the contact lens.
While these visual aids have a ways to go before they can work like either Steve Austin’s or Geordi LaForge’s devices, they show what is possible, in terms of bionic vision. As technology evolves, these and similar devices will provide near 20/20 vision to those for whom surgery or biologic means aren’t able to restore vision. Who knows? Maybe one day people might have a choice of either vision like Steve Austin or Geordi LaForge.
Sources:
https://magazine.clevelandclinic.org/2020-fall/bionic-eyesight
https://labs.engineering.asu.edu/trek-demo/person/geordi-la-forge/
https://www.thepatent.news/blinkit-a-new-technology/