THE first complete artificial “eye” that taps directly into the optic nerve
is due to be implanted into a blind woman within the next four months. The
device could one day restore some vision to many blind people, including those
whose retinas have been damaged or destroyed.
Developed at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, the artificial
eye provokes visual sensations in the brain by directly stimulating different
parts of the optic nerve. Other experimental implants stimulate the ganglia
cells on the retina or the visual cortex of the brain itself
(New Scientist, 7 November 1998, p 23, and…
