https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/epfd-ric030321.php
News Release 5-Mar-2021
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Being able to make blind people see again sounds like the stuff of miracles or even science fiction. And it has always been one of the biggest challenges for scientists. Diego Ghezzi, who holds the Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering (LNE) at EPFL's School of Engineering, has made this issue a research focus. Since 2015, he and his team have been developing a retinal implant that works with camera-equipped smart glasses and a microcomputer. "Our system is designed to give blind people a form of artificial vision by using electrodes to stimulate their retinal cells," says Ghezzi.
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The only catch is that the system has not yet been tested on humans. The research team first needs to be certain of their results. "We aren't yet authorized to implant our device in human patients, since obtaining the medical approval takes a long time. But we came up with a process for testing it virtually - a type of work-around," says Ghezzi. More specifically, the engineers developed a virtual reality program that can simulate what patients would see with the implants. Their findings have just been published in Communication Materials.
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All these experiments demonstrated that the system's capacity doesn't need to be improved any further, and that it's ready for clinical trials. But the team will have to wait a little longer before their technology can be implanted in actual patients. For now, restoring vision remains in the realm of science fiction.
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