In Britain, successfully completed the operation to create a bionic vision

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    Photo Photo: Paul Cooper

    80-year-old British pensioner Ray Flynn, suffering from age-related macular degeneration ( AMD , Age-related macula degeneration), as a result of a successful operation to transplant a special implant into the body of the eye, Argus II again got the opportunity to see. The disease, which leads to a decrease in central vision, developed in a man eight years ago, and led to the fact that he was practically blind. After the operation, which took place on June 16 this year, when it became clear that it was successful, Ray Flynn was first shown to reporters.

    Technically, a man’s vision provides a range of devices. The most “biological” among them is a special implant placed in the eyeball, and consisting of a wireless receiver and an electrode located directly on the retina. The receiver receives a specially encoded picture from an external camera located in the center of the spectacle frame, which is converted into a series of electrical pulses transmitted through the electrode to the retina. Healthy cells on it, in turn, transmit the signal thus obtained to the brain.

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    Photo The Guardian

    The video itself, which is transmitted in real time (Ray says that he can now watch matches of the football team Manchester United), is obtained by the interaction of several components. The role of the optical signal receiver is performed by a special camera mounted in the spectacle frame. She, in turn, sends the resulting image to a mini-computer that is wearable on the belt, which decodes the image for transmission to the implant in the eye. Direct transmission of signals occurs wirelessly using an antenna mounted on a spectacle frame around the temple.

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    Photo The Guardian

    As a result, Ray Flynn became the first person in the world who combines both biological vision and its artificial counterpart. Unfortunately, technical details such as image resolution or its encoding for transmission to the brain are not yet known. Nevertheless, a man can now not only recognize the faces of people, but, as mentioned above, watch television with a very dynamic picture. In Britain, approximately 500,000 people suffer from age-related visual impairments such as Ray Flynn’s disease. Strictly speaking, this operation is not the first of its kind. Previously, patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa also received bionic eyes, but in this case, the technological solution for the treatment of AMD was carried out for the first time.

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