From a Vision to a Prototype: Understanding the First Human Bionic Eye
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2020
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The world's first human bionic eye is here, which means several conditions leading to blindness might (eventually) not be. What does it look like? How does a bionic eye work? What will the patient experience? Press play for the answers to these questions and more.
You'll discover:
- How the human bionic eye processor stacks up against an HD TV
- Why this type of implant has the potential to treat many more conditions than other types of eye implants
- What makes the surgical implantation of this bionic eye technology more stable and less risky than earlier models
Arthur Lowery is a professor at Monash University and a fellow at ARC Laureate Fellow Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, and for the past several years, he's been developing the world's first human bionic eye.
Most people think of some sort of glass eyeball when they think of a bionic eye, but that's not what this is. Instead, it is a pair of sunglasses equipped with a camera and processing system, along with a coil on the back of the head which transmits power and data through the skull until it reaches a series of tiles, each about the size of half a fingernail. On the base of each tile, there is an electrode which goes into the brain and injects currents, leading to voltages. These voltages make the brain think that it is seeing what is being projected by the system.
Whether someone lost an eye in an accident or injury, has age-related or genetic macular degeneration, or one of many conditions affecting the optic nerve, such as cancer, this technology holds promise.
So, how long until it's ready to be implanted in a human, and what does the procedure entail? There is already a prototype, but still a number of regulatory components to navigate. Lowery anticipates that within a couple of years, it could be ready for use in humans. He also explains what exactly the procedure entails.
To find out more, tune in and visit https://www.monash.edu/industry/success-stories/bionic-eye.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Forget frequently asked questions common sense common knowledge or Google how about advice from a real genius |
| 0:06.7 | 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified and licensed 5% go and beyond. They become very good at what they do. |
| 0:15.0 | But only 0.1% are real Jesus. |
| 0:18.2 | Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. |
| 0:22.3 | He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field, |
| 0:25.0 | sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets, and more. Here come the geniuses. |
| 0:30.3 | This is the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | That is Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:41.0 | I have Arthur Lowry. |
| 0:42.0 | He's a professor at Monash University. He's also an |
| 0:45.0 | Arc Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and he works on what's called |
| 0:49.8 | optical communication but also he's involved in creating the world's first human bionic |
| 0:55.2 | eye that will be implanted that has been implanted and we'll get into that. |
| 0:58.6 | So Arthur, thanks for coming. |
| 0:59.6 | It's a pleasure. |
| 1:00.6 | Yeah, tell me about the, how long has the bionic eye process been going on and the project |
| 1:06.2 | and you know, tell me about the background of it and where it's at today? |
| 1:09.2 | So this actually started in 2010 that the Prime Minister then Kevin Rudd had a 2020 vision conference |
| 1:17.3 | where invited famous actors and also scientists and engineers to think what the future might be. |
| 1:24.1 | And one of the projects put up was bionic vision because Australia's got a long |
| 1:29.9 | history with the cochlear implant for restoring hearing awarded 8 million Australian dollars in 2010 to do four years of research actually which was rather hopeful to create a prototype and do all |
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