Bionic eyes could now let visually impaired see without surgery

Among all organs in human body, eyes are the most crucial as well as complicate organ. Perhaps, this has been the reason that though we have been able to reproduce various body functions such as heart, kidneys and ears artificially, we are still far from developing a complete artificial eye. Though significant research is being done to facilitate visual impaired and blind, now researchers at University of Oxford have come up with a low cost way to help such people.

Bionic eye glasses

This technique which is currently being displayed at Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London uses computer vision to aid visual scene and improve the ability of visually impaired to recognize things around them. The prosthetics are worn like a pair of glasses while a tiny camera is placed on these glasses which in turn is connected to a small sophisticated computer. LEDs are used to light up objects around the user. The camera consists of sensors that function as eyes own photo cells. They detect light and accordingly control the output of computer and LEDs while the computer behaves like a robot and helps the user in recognizing objects around him with help of an array of LEDs placed on the glasses.

So far this seems to be a good non-surgical alternative for partially blind which is not only simple but also economical. The low cost factor should increase availability of such devices to a large number of visually impaired people who are in a dire need of it.

Via: SkyNews