Kentucky Doc Spring 2014 | Page 7

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Spring 2014 • Kentucky
the implant, as the disease damages the ocular nerve.
The Argus II requires a 4-hour operation to install an
antenna fitted with 60 electrodes behind the eye(s) and
into the retina. This creates the equivalent of a 60-pixel
display for the brain to interpret. Dr. Robert Greenberg,
president and CEO of Second Sight Medical Products,
Inc. said the device does not restore full vision, but does
give patients what he calls “low vision” meaning it lets
them perform visual tasks that they couldn’t otherwise
do. “This is only the first step,” Greenberg said. “One of
the great things about the Argus II system is that it is a
software-driven system and we expect to be producing
software upgrades for all the implanted patients.” Current
lab work suggests those upgrades will include color vision
and sharper images and Greenberg said they are working
on more advanced implants. The Argus II is considered
the most advanced prosthetic to date, and several publications including Time, CNN and Scientific American have
called the Argus II one of the most important inventions
of 2013.

Future Developments

Increased accuracy of images requires more electrodes
in the implant but the challenge is in keeping it tiny. The
planned Argus III will likely include 240 electrodes. This
more powerful implant won’t be approved and available
for several years.
Another bionic eye implant in development is the BioRetina by Nano Retina. It costs less – $60,000 instead of
$100,000 – and rather than an external camera, the visionrestoring sensor is actually placed inside the eye, on top
of the retina. The operation only takes 30 minutes and
can be performed under local anesthetic. The Bio-Retina
plops a 24x24 resolution (576 pixel) sensor right on top
of the damaged retina, and 576 electrodes on the back of
the sensor implant themselves into the optic nerve. An
embedded image processor converts the data from each
of the pixels into electrical pulses that are coded in such
a way that the brain can perceive different levels of grayscale. The Bio-Retina system comes with a standard pair
of corrective lenses that are modified so that they can fire
a near-infrared laser beam through the iris to the sensor at
the back of the eye. The sensor has a photovoltaic cell that
produces up to 3 milliwatts. The infrared laser is invisible
and harmless. Human trials of Bio-Retina are scheduled to
begin in 2013.

7

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