Longevity science

While the word prosthesis usually evokes images of artificial legs, arms, and these days even sophisticated thought-controlled hands, an entirely new class of replacement body part has now become a reality – the bionic eye.

One of the pioneers in this field is California-based Second Sight and the company has now announced that its Argus II System has received U.S. market approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Here you can see an animation of the bionic eye being developed in Melbourne, Australia by the Bionic Vision Australia consortium.

We reported on this implant earlier in the month.

http://www.scoop.it/t/longevity-science/p/2556266512/first-australian-bionic-eye-prototype-successfully-implanted

In an historic move, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted market approval to an artificial retina technology, the first bionic eye to be approved for patients in the U.S.

Australian researchers implanted a new version of a bionic eye into a blind woman. The subject had experienced years of darkness due to retinitis pigmentosa, but when the implant was activated, she could see light and shapes.

The implant behind the retina sends electrical impulses along the optic nervers and into the brain, which processes these signals despite the fact that they are not actually originiating from the retina.