http://singularityhub.com/2013/11/19/bionic-eye-implant-will-become-available-in-u-s-in-coming-weeks/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

The Argus II retinal implant is like a cochlear implant for the blind. It looks like computing goggles such as Google Glass, but it sends the images the eyeglass-mounted visual processing unit detects to a tiny electrode array that’s been implanted in the user’s retina. Electrical stimulation sends visual information up the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the user’s brain, allowing him or her to see.

You could call it a bionic eye, and average Americans will gain access to it before the end of 2013. The device, made by California-based Second Sight with support from the Department of Energy, will in the coming weeks become medically available in the United States for patients blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, a degenerative eye disease that affects 1 in 4,000 Americans.

60 pixels?

I said low res :)

AH well, gotta start somewhere

Would be interesting to see at what resolution face recognition becomes viable.

Also be interesting to know what dynamic range each pixel has.

I think you could recognise someone’s face with maybe 50×50 (2500 pixels)

Very low res. Pretty much light perception with maybe not bumping into elephants.

I’m surprised at that incidence of in 4,000 for RP. I thought it was less than that. It’s sometimes a hereditary disease, sometimes just a random mutation. I know of one family of two girls and a boy with RP. Nowhere else in the family tree. I dealt with the parents years ago wanting to know if it was something they had done wrong. It shows up around the mid teens with night blindness – usually they start bumping into things around the house in the dark when they didn’t do it before. One of ‘my’ girls desperately wanted to drive. Her vision was deteriorating quite a bit, but she managed to get her licence on the understanding that she would hand it in when necessary. I think she got about 6 months of driving. All of these people, now in their 30s have careers and families.

dv said:

AH well, gotta start somewhere

If you start too high you have nowhere to go with the new model in a years time. How are you going to make money without upgrading everyone to the new model each year???

Stealth said:

dv said:

AH well, gotta start somewhere

If you start too high you have nowhere to go with the new model in a years time. How are you going to make money without upgrading everyone to the new model each year???

Easy, just do a study to find the old one caused cancer or leaked or similar.