Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Could Bionic Eyes Help Me See Again?
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Could Bionic Eyes Help Me See Again?
Mohammed is from India and he’s blind. He emailed CrowdScience because he wanted to know more about new technologies that could help him see again. Specifically, he was interested in artificial vision - what is it and what does it look like?
Bobbie Lakhera travels to Germany to find out. There, she meets a blind patient called Manuel. He’s about to have a major operation. A computer chip will be implanted into his eye and his surgeon, Florian Gekeler, believes that it will restore some of Manuel’s sight.
But what happens if you have no eyes for a chip like this to be inserted into? Bobbie speaks to Dr Nader Pouratian about his brain prosthesis. Because the implant is attached directly to the visual cortex of the brain, it means you could have no eyes or no optic nerve and you could still see with this type of therapy.
Whilst both these technologies are limited to black and white vision, Bobbie asks whether one day we may be able to develop systems that give those living with blindness 20/20 vision.
Presenter: Bobbie Lakhera
Producer: Graihagh Jackson
(Photo: A female iris, bionic eye concept. Credit: Getty Images)
View all episodes
By BBC World Service
4.7
436436 ratings
Mohammed is from India and he’s blind. He emailed CrowdScience because he wanted to know more about new technologies that could help him see again. Specifically, he was interested in artificial vision - what is it and what does it look like?
Bobbie Lakhera travels to Germany to find out. There, she meets a blind patient called Manuel. He’s about to have a major operation. A computer chip will be implanted into his eye and his surgeon, Florian Gekeler, believes that it will restore some of Manuel’s sight.
But what happens if you have no eyes for a chip like this to be inserted into? Bobbie speaks to Dr Nader Pouratian about his brain prosthesis. Because the implant is attached directly to the visual cortex of the brain, it means you could have no eyes or no optic nerve and you could still see with this type of therapy.
Whilst both these technologies are limited to black and white vision, Bobbie asks whether one day we may be able to develop systems that give those living with blindness 20/20 vision.
Presenter: Bobbie Lakhera
Producer: Graihagh Jackson
(Photo: A female iris, bionic eye concept. Credit: Getty Images)
More shows like CrowdScience
View all
More or Less
886 Listeners
The Infinite Monkey Cage
1,921 Listeners
The Naked Scientists Podcast
604 Listeners
Health Check
90 Listeners
The Food Chain
341 Listeners
Discovery
959 Listeners
BBC Inside Science
419 Listeners
Science Weekly
416 Listeners
Curious Cases
760 Listeners
The Inquiry
734 Listeners
The Life Scientific
233 Listeners
Science In Action
331 Listeners
Unexpected Elements
361 Listeners
People Fixing the World
242 Listeners
The World, the Universe and Us
114 Listeners
Manchester Arena Bomb: Stories of Hope
0 Listeners
When I Was 25
0 Listeners
QUB Talks 100 – The Partition of Ireland: Causes and Consequences
0 Listeners
The Listening Project
6 Listeners
Descendants
13 Listeners
Що це було
4 Listeners
Siarad Moel: Podlediad Aled Hughes
1 Listeners
The Great Post Office Trial
36 Listeners
Би-Би-Си Кыргыз кызматы 25 жыл ободо
0 Listeners
Dad Boys with Dave Elliott and Shane Todd
3 Listeners