Better Retinal Implants for Blindness Cure Coming

I previously wrote about retinal implants that might cure blindness.  This idea is yet another in the line of machine-human implants that will first replace natural abilities - aqnd ultimately augment human abilities.  Look here for a video fest and link fest of bionic human implants in development.

Researchers now claim to have developed another retinal implant to cure blindness now with four times the resolution of previous implantable chips

Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) announced their plans to test an improved retinal implant in blind patients. The new implant, which scientists hope will improve patients’ vision even more, has four times the resolution of the previous version. 

Details of the chip and it’s challenges:

The device, developed by Mark Humayun and colleagues at USC, consists of a tiny chip dotted with hair-thin electrodes. When implanted in the retina, the electrodes transmit electrical signals from the chip to neural cells in the eye, which then send the message to the brain. A wireless camera mounted on glasses and a video processing unit worn on the belt capture and process visual information from the wearer’s surroundings and wirelessly transmit those signals to the chip.

The new version of the implant… has quadrupled the number of electrodes–from 16 to 60.l. The researchers recently received permission from the Food and Drug Administration to start human tests.

It is just a matter of time until night vision and superhuman quality vision chips will be available for elective implantation. Would you get one?