Bionic eye for the blind

I have always held that those who champion natural remedies over conventional medicine should not be to rigid or dogmatic about it. Just tell me what can natural remedies do for the blind. However, conventional medicine and/or modern technology has created a bionic eye for the blind. Ron who was made blind because of retinitis pigmentosa (a group of inherited eye diseases that cause degeneration of the retina) who had been blind for 30 years now can see with the aid of the bionic eye nicknamed Argua II. Ron was fitted with the bionic eye when he operated upon by consultant retinal surgeon Lyndon da Cruz in July last year at London's Moorfield's eye hospital. Ron says he can now follow white lines on the road and sorts out white socks, gray socks and black socks, using the bionic eye and his wife says that he can do his own washing now using the washing machine.

The bionic eye called Argus II was developed by US company Second Sight. It consists of a camera and video processor mounted on sunglasses which can send captured images wirelessly to a tiny receiver on the outside of the eye. The receiver in turn sends the data via a tiny cable to an array of electrodes which sit on the retina at the back of the eye. When these electrodes in the retina are stimulated they send messages along the optic nerve to the brain, which is then able to perceive patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to which electrodes have been stimulated.

Source: BBC News