Sunglasses Can Now Treat Your Eyes

Pulse

oi-Suparna Chakaraborthy

By Suparna Chakaraborthy

Friday, April 16, 2010, 11:23

Many don't have a very high opinion about usage of Sunglasses. The myth that they spoil sight is still prevalent but now researchers will be using pair of dark sunglasses to treat eyes.

Sunglasses could one day give virtual sight back to those with impaired-vision, that"s the idea behind the 'bionic eye" shades.

Bionic Vision Australia has introduce a sunglasses prototype for a bionic eye, which researchers hope to implant in its first recipient by 2013.

The prototype uses a tiny video camera attached to the middle of a pair of sunglasses. The camera captures images of the patients eye to the transmitter attached in the shirt pocket or on a belt.

The signal is then sent using radio waves to a microchip implanted in a patient's retina. Electrodes on the retina are then stimulated, which the brain interprets as an image.

This technology has impressed many scientists and no doubt is a mind blowing discovery, "It's amazing technology," said Leighton Boyd, who has lost nearly all his vision as a sufferer of retinitis pigmentosa.