A TINY silicon chip that mimics the way the human retina works was implanted
into three blind patients in Illinois last week. If successful, the technology
could partially restore vision in a simple one-off operation. Requiring no
batteries or even wiring, the chip differs from other recent efforts to produce
eye implants, because it doesn’t need an external camera to do the “seeing”.
Instead, the artificial silicon retina (ASR), developed by brothers Alan and
Vincent Chow of Optobionics near Chicago, is completely self-contained.
Delicately placed just beneath the surface of the retina, the
2-millimetre-square ASR is powered entirely by light…
