In Britain, successfully completed the operation to create a bionic vision

^{Photo Photo: Paul Cooper}

80-year-old British pensioner Ray Flynn, suffering from age-related macular degeneration ( AMD , Age-related macula degeneration), as a result of a successful transplant operation in the eye body of a special implant Argus II was again able to see. The disease, which leads to a decrease in central vision, developed in a man eight years ago, and led to the fact that he actually turned out to be blind. After the operation, which took place on June 16 of this year, when it turned out that it was successful, Ray Flynn was first shown to journalists.

Technically, the vision of a man provides a whole range of devices. The most “biological” among them is a special implant placed in the eyeball and consisting of a wireless receiver and an electrode placed directly on the retina. The receiver receives a specially coded picture from an external camera located in the center of the spectacle frame, which is converted into a series of electrical impulses transmitted through the electrode to the retina of the eye. Healthy cells on it, in turn, transmit the signal thus obtained to the brain.


^{Photo The Guardian}
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The video picture itself, which is transmitted in real time (Ray says that he can now watch the matches of the football team of Manchester United), is obtained by the interaction of several components. The role of the receiver of optical signals is performed by a special camera mounted in the frame of the glasses. She, in turn, gives the resulting image to a mini-computer wearable on the belt, which decodes the image for its transfer to the implant located in the eye. The direct transmission of signals occurs over a wireless connection using an antenna mounted on a rim of glasses approximately at the temple.


^{Photo The Guardian}

As a result, Ray Flynn became the first person in the world to combine biological vision and its artificial counterpart. Unfortunately, technical details like the resolution of a picture or its coding for transmission to the brain are not yet known. Nevertheless, a man can now not only recognize people's faces, but, as mentioned above, watch television with a very dynamic picture. In Britain, approximately 500,000 people suffer from age-related visual impairment, such as Ray Flynn's disease. Strictly speaking, this operation is not the first of its kind. Previously, patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa also received bionic eyes, but in this case, the technological solution for the treatment of AMD was carried out for the first time.