"The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first treatment to give limited vision to people who are blind, involving a technology called the ‘artificial retina,’ " reports The New York Times.
The article, written by Pam Belluck, continues, "With it, people with certain types of blindness can detect crosswalks on the street, burners on a stove, the presence of people or cars, and sometimes even oversized numbers or letters.
"The artificial retina is a sheet of electrodes surgically implanted in the eye. The patient is also outfitted with a pair of glasses with an attached camera and a portable video processor. These elements together allow visual signals to bypass the damaged portion of the retina and be transmitted to the brain. The F.D.A. approval covers this integrated system, which the manufacturer calls Argus II."
Please click on the link above to read all of Belluck’s piece about this significant scientific development.