from the we-can-rebuild-him-we-have-the-technology dept.
RT has a story on a Sucessful Bionic Eye implant, with links to a YouTube video of the sensor being turned on, and more details.
Larry Hester, 66, was blind for 33 years before scientists at Duke University, in North Carolina, switched on the device.
...
The bionic eye uses wireless technology, through which a sensor is implanted in the eye to pick up light signals sent from a camera mounted on special eyeglasses, Duke University said in a statement.
The Duke Medicine blog has more details, and the eye itself is The Argus II Second Sight
A miniature video camera housed in the patient’s glasses captures a scene. The video is sent to a small patient-worn computer (i.e., the video processing unit – VPU) where it is processed and transformed into instructions that are sent back to the glasses via a cable. These instructions are transmitted wirelessly to an antenna in the implant. The signals are then sent to the electrode array, which emits small pulses of electricity. These pulses bypass the damaged photoreceptors and stimulate the retina’s remaining cells, which transmit the visual information along the optic nerve to the brain, creating the perception of patterns of light. Patients learn to interpret these visual patterns.
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Monday October 13 2014, @03:13PM
We have the technology.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @03:42PM
Wayland sounds like a really great replacement for X, except I have one problem: I have no idea how to actually use it!
Can anyone explain to me how I can use Wayland instead of X? I've seared for docs about this but I'm not finding anything.
How do the Wayland devs run Wayland? How do the people porting GTK+ and Qt run Wayland?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @03:58PM
Mod the parent up! We're talking about technology, so Wayland is totally on topic.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @03:54PM
Something is really fucked up with the story submission page at https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl [soylentnews.org].
When I load it it says "You are not allowed to use this resource."
What is up with that? How the hell am I supposed to submit stories?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @03:23PM
Does anyone here know how long it will be until similar penile implants are available?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @03:25PM
They've been available for quite a while, just without computer control.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday October 13 2014, @05:39PM
Well, it probably will be some time, because nobody wants to wear a pair of glasses on their penis, and even if they did, there generally isn't a lot to see, and most people keep it tucked away under at least one layer of clothes. But the main thing keeping this idea down is that there are no optical nerves to connect it to in the penis.
But maybe you are special?
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday October 13 2014, @11:51PM
Maybe he's a bit cockeyed.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Monday October 13 2014, @03:25PM
I'd love to see what an artist who still had one proper eye and one with the implant, what they might create.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @03:38PM
Probably vomit.
I can make myself puke if I play a fast-moving YouTube video on my phone, and hold it up to one eye, while looking out normally using the other. I feel okay at first, but about a minute into it I start to get disoriented, and then I spew chunks.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Covalent on Monday October 13 2014, @04:06PM
Just wow. This is one of those reasons why all of us nerds toil and struggle against the forces of ignorance.
Thanks science. Thank you very much.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @04:12PM
Amen to that, brother! I wish that this sense of helping fellow humans carried over from biomedical science into computer science. Computer science is so impersonal. Just look at systemd. It isn't there to help make computers better for users. It isn't there to help make life easier for sysadmins. In fact it seems to do the complete opposite! It turns each man against his brother, and each woman against her sister. Systemd brings strife and hatred; despair and trouble. Systemd makes grown men cry, and wish they had never even been born. Systemd is the complete opposite to this biomedical development. Systemd brings us suffering, not joy. It brings us pain, not pleasure. It brings us sorrow, not happiness. Systemd is killing the Debian project, as if it were some sort of malignant tumor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @05:31PM
Funny juxtaposition considering the wife of the man who received the bionic eye implant can be clearly seen leading a small prayer (when they hold hands) in the youtube video. Either you forgot to thank Jesus (or maybe some other deity(s)) or she might be giving credit to someone (something) which doesn't deserve the credit.
I wonder who is right....................
(Score: 1) by EvilSS on Monday October 13 2014, @04:11PM
So how long before someone mistakes someone wearing this with a glasshole and assaults them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @04:20PM
You make a good point. The concept of digitally assistive eyewear has been irreparably damaged thanks to Google and Google Glass. Thanks a lot, Google! Thanks a fucking lot!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @04:53PM
OOOOOOOORRRRrrrrr it's the assholes who hate some glasses so much, that they would actually commit a felony to stop someone from wearing them. The google glass resolution is 640x360, and i bet the optics in it are pretty shitty, so really it's meant as a HID and not as a camera. Also considering that they cost like $1600, it's not like they are going to be around that much. So what the fuck is your major malfunction? It's not like the idea is something new. There's been cameras for all sorts of things for how long now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @05:00PM
Ok, i was apparently wrong with the camera resolution, but the rest of it still stands.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 13 2014, @05:05PM
No, nothing stands. Google didn't create the crime of assault against videographers. There are a lot of people out there confused about the right to record in public. They'll learn their lesson after they land in prison, or get shot up by someone with at least one good eye.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 13 2014, @04:59PM
Steve Mann [wikipedia.org] was attacked on July 1, 2012 [techcrunch.com].
Google Glass [wikipedia.org] began testing in 2012. "Sergey Brin wore a prototype of the Glass to an April 5, 2012, Foundation Fighting Blindness event in San Francisco." It was more widely available in 2013 (when .
The Glassholes are legally allowed to record in public, no matter how much that infuriates the total assholes, thugs, and the mentally ill out on the street. Businesses can ban Glass, but video cam technology will just get smaller until it can be integrated into glasses or pins cheaply (consumer friendly) and too small to detect. Anybody who wants to do so will be able to buy a cam that dumps video onto their smartphone using Bluetooth.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by choose another one on Monday October 13 2014, @05:02PM
This particular model ? - shortly after it gets released.
In general ? - too late it's already happened, years ago, and with stuff (assistive, with medical documentation) that pre-dates Glass. Google didn't start this stuff and they didn't start the anti-camera backlash either.
Eventually it will have to work itself out through disability discrimination laws - it should have been clear, right from the start, to anyone with half a brain that augmentative technology may also be assistive technology, functionally no different, dependent only on the wearer's abilities. It is likely to become surgically implanted too, and hence completely non-removable, you will be able to ban/block it as much as you can ban people with metal plates in their bones.
(Score: 1) by takyon on Monday October 13 2014, @04:43PM
I expected a simulation of the flashes of light he was seeing.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by skullz on Monday October 13 2014, @05:07PM
Thank you. Me too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 13 2014, @05:22PM
Clogged toilet.
Throw glasses in and flush.
Discover the problem and solve it.
Refuse to eat anything for a week. Enjoy a lifetime of nightmares.
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Monday October 13 2014, @06:02PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPJ2ZjYlY38 [youtube.com]
I think it is utterly amazing that we are now able to effectively replace the human eye like this. It is very Giordi LaForge - right down to interpreting the electrical "picture".
Seeing this kind of stuff gives just a little hope that not all the human race are in it for $$ and power.
Though my cynical side says the guy who invented it is sitting there thinking "Holy f**k! I can make bazillions off this!"
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 1) by thenzero on Monday October 13 2014, @07:11PM
Am I correct in understanding that he perceived flashing even though there was no flashing?
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday October 14 2014, @12:04AM
It's not clear from the article, but I think they are using the flash rate to indicate brightness. Normal rods/cones either fire or don't. The brain determines brightness by how many fire.
The resolution on this thing is so low that won't work. Instead he "sees" a pattern of light/dark based on the flash rate of individual pixels.
If you pause the video at about 40 seconds, they show the implant. The resolution is only about 10 x 10.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.