Prototype bionic eye created with custom 3D printer

When he was an assistant professor at Princeton University, Michael McAlpine led the development of a 3D-printed bionic ear. Now an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, he has gone on to 3D-print a rudimentary bionic eye – and it could eventually lead to versions capable of replacing the real thing.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Prototype bionic eye created with custom 3D printer

When he was an assistant professor at Princeton University, Michael McAlpine led the development of a 3D-printed bionic ear. Now an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, he has gone on to 3D-print a rudimentary bionic eye – and it could eventually lead to versions capable of replacing the real thing.

more…

Eventually might become more useful than the real thing, zoom ability, information overlay, etc

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Prototype bionic eye created with custom 3D printer

When he was an assistant professor at Princeton University, Michael McAlpine led the development of a 3D-printed bionic ear. Now an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, he has gone on to 3D-print a rudimentary bionic eye – and it could eventually lead to versions capable of replacing the real thing.

more…

Eventually might become more useful than the real thing, zoom ability, information overlay, etc

Began with a hemispherical glass dome. Using a custom-built 3D printer, they then added stripes of an ink containing silver particles – the ink successfully dried in place, as opposed to running down the inside of the dome and pooling at the bottom. Finally, over top of that ink base, a printed layer of a semiconducting polymer was added. The result was an array of 3D-printed photodiodes, which are capable of converting light into an electrical current with an efficiency of 25 percent.

So it’s essentially just a retina-shaped camera. No cells or optical processing is involved in this version.

It would be interesting to see how it interfaces with real cells and nerves.

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Prototype bionic eye created with custom 3D printer

When he was an assistant professor at Princeton University, Michael McAlpine led the development of a 3D-printed bionic ear. Now an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, he has gone on to 3D-print a rudimentary bionic eye – and it could eventually lead to versions capable of replacing the real thing.

more…

Eventually might become more useful than the real thing, zoom ability, information overlay, etc

Began with a hemispherical glass dome. Using a custom-built 3D printer, they then added stripes of an ink containing silver particles – the ink successfully dried in place, as opposed to running down the inside of the dome and pooling at the bottom. Finally, over top of that ink base, a printed layer of a semiconducting polymer was added. The result was an array of 3D-printed photodiodes, which are capable of converting light into an electrical current with an efficiency of 25 percent.

So it’s essentially just a retina-shaped camera. No cells or optical processing is involved in this version.

It would be interesting to see how it interfaces with real cells and nerves.

Often/usually the optical processing centre in the brain is OK when someone is blind and it’s just a problem with the eyes itself so you could bypass them with an artificial substitute (probably)

Has anyone tried to make rods and cones similar to the human eye and hook them up to a processing unit?

In front to the rods and cones would be some kind of clear flexible lens for focusing.

or Is their a way to hook rods and cones directly to a camera ?

What would a rod and cone processing unit have to do to function?

Could a cameras cmos sensor and a digital image processing unit read a lens camera and convert that image to a signal optic nerves can read ?

Tau.Neutrino said:

Has anyone tried to make rods and cones similar to the human eye and hook them up to a processing unit?

In front to the rods and cones would be some kind of clear flexible lens for focusing.

or Is their a way to hook rods and cones directly to a camera ?

I think there have been retinal implants that try to do that.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Could a cameras cmos sensor and a digital image processing unit read a lens camera and convert that image to a signal optic nerves can read ?

No. Much of the processing is intra-retinal. Much more than has been understood.

buffy said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Could a cameras cmos sensor and a digital image processing unit read a lens camera and convert that image to a signal optic nerves can read ?

No. Much of the processing is intra-retinal. Much more than has been understood.

Things will really move along when they can 3D print rods and cones.

Tau.Neutrino said:

buffy said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Could a cameras cmos sensor and a digital image processing unit read a lens camera and convert that image to a signal optic nerves can read ?

No. Much of the processing is intra-retinal. Much more than has been understood.

Things will really move along when they can 3D print rods and cones.

Probably not. Having the hardware but missing the software/chemical elements.