{"id":187503,"date":"2024-04-16T18:23:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/the-next-frontier-for-brain-implants-is-artificial-vision"},"modified":"2024-04-16T18:23:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:23:46","slug":"the-next-frontier-for-brain-implants-is-artificial-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/the-next-frontier-for-brain-implants-is-artificial-vision","title":{"rendered":"The Next Frontier for Brain Implants Is Artificial Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2021, he heard about a trial of a visual prosthesis at Illinois Institute of Technology<\/a> in Chicago. Researchers cautioned that the device was experimental and he shouldn\u2019t expect to regain the level of vision he had before. Still, he was intrigued enough to sign up. Thanks to the chips in his brain, Bussard now has very limited artificial vision\u2014what he describes as \u201cblips on a radar screen.\u201d With the implant, he can perceive people and objects represented in white and iridescent dots.<\/p>\n

Bussard is one of a small number of blind individuals around the world who have risked brain surgery to get a visual prosthesis. In Spain, researchers at Miguel Hern\u00e1ndez University have implanted four people with a similar system. The trials are the culmination of decades of research.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s interest from industry, too. California-based Cortigent is developing the Orion<\/a>, which has been implanted in six volunteers. Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink is also working on a brain implant for vision. In an X post<\/a> in March, Musk said Neuralink\u2019s device, called Blindsight, is \u201calready working in monkeys.\u201d He added: \u201cResolution will be low at first, like early Nintendo graphics, but ultimately may exceed normal human vision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2021, he heard about a trial of a visual prosthesis at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Researchers cautioned that the device was experimental and he shouldn\u2019t expect to regain the level of vision he had before. Still, he was intrigued enough to sign up. Thanks to the chips in his brain, Bussard now [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,1499,2019],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-cyborgs","category-elon-musk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}