3D Bionic Eye Could Give Superhuman Sight, Nightvision
The human eye is incredibly complex. So complex that we're still earning about it on a daily basis and have had a tough time trying to figure out how it works. It's also been difficult to replicate. That is, until now.
Scientists have 3D printed a bionic eye that could be used as a replacement and even perform better than the natural human eye. The bionic eye is something that has been in the works for years to give people back the vision they lost, or even provide vision to those who never had it.
There are a couple of versions that are considered the most advanced of the bionic eye and have been already implanted in patients. Both of these versions operate with similar equipment. The have a set of glasses with a camera in the lens that sends a signal to a unit outside the body, that then translates that information to an implant in the patient's retina. It then sends those signals to the users visual center of the brain. They are far from perfect as the patients are only able to see flashes of light because the technology isn't fast enough to really capture images, but it's an improvement.
This new 3D bionic eye is modeled after the human retina with the concave curve, so it's able to produce 3D images. As the technology slowly progresses, there's no telling how long away we are from these becoming a viable solution to the someone with impaired vision, but the future is looking bright.