The concept of a bionic eye that could restore vision has long been the stuff of science fiction, but recent advancements in technology are bringing us closer to making it a reality. The Science Eye, a project currently in development, aims to do just that. Using a combination of advanced optics, cameras, and electrodes, this bionic eye could restore sight to those who have lost it due to degenerative eye diseases or injuries.
But the potential applications of this technology continue. A bionic eye could also enable humans to manipulate their reality, essentially putting us in our version of the Matrix. While these ideas are still firmly in the realm of speculation, the development of the Science Eye represents an exciting step forward in the quest to restore vision and enhance human capabilities through technology.
As per CNET, the idea behind the Science Eye is to coax other cells within the eye to receive and translate light signals. Retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration are hereditary disorders that result in the death of retinal photoreceptors due to structural abnormalities in the outer nuclear layer of the retina. When these light-sensitive cells, known as photoreceptors, are lost, light cannot be translated into an electrical signal, resulting in permanent blindness.
The Science Eye aims to turn RGCs into photoreceptors, which respond to light and communicate that information to the brain. This modification requires injecting a genetically modified opsin encapsulated inside a latent virus to target RGCs. The Science team revealed that opsin is delivered to RGCs by utilizing neurons derived from embryonic stem cells and retinal organoids, which are miniature human retinas.
To summarize, people can use lamps instead of light bulbs to illuminate their homes. The RGC- and other cell-type-mixed organoids derived from stem cells are treated with an opsin-containing viral construct solution. After about ten weeks, researchers like cell engineer Kevin Smith look via a microscope for glowing red cells, which indicate that the opsin has arrived in the organoid’s RGCs.
The Science Eye comprises several components, one of which is a 2mm square microLED display with 16,000 pixels, which provides a resolution nearly eight times that of an iPhone 13. FlexLED, Science’s microLED gadget, is simply one component of the Science Eye.
To restore patients’ vision with the Science Eye, the Science team must first show that a gene delivered to a specific location of the eye can generate electrical signals in the portions of the brain that control sight. Once the prosthesis has been proven safe and effective, it will be implanted on top of and inside the eyeballs of human patients suffering from diseases that kill the eye’s light-sensing cells.
The Science team has been setting the basis for the Science Eye, prepping it for future studies to assess its vision-restoring abilities, and establishing the technology’s efficacy in bunnies like Leela. The first scientific publication produced by the company has been published in bioRxiv, a resource for preprint scientific articles.
Science Corp. CEO Max Hodak demonstrated the Science Eye to the reporter using his laptop. He displayed the device’s dimensions and the number of pixels the team could cram onto the microLED screen. He demonstrated briefly what it might be like to have a Science Eye, complete with bouncing red pixels that replicated an image of a street and a person waving their hands.
While the team has made significant progress in demonstrating the Science Eye’s effectiveness in animals, they still need to perform tests on adult humans. The Science team hopes to grow and test a retina in human cells, but they need permission to do so. The team continues refining the viral construct containing opsins to increase the number of RGCs that express the construct in preparation for future trials.
