Good vision is essential to everyday living, yet approximately 12 million Americans aged 40 and over live with vision impairment, including 1 million who are legally blind, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although some affected individuals can be treated with surgery or medication, and recent advances in gene and stem cell therapies are showing promise, no effective treatments exist for many people who are blinded by severe degeneration of, or damage to, the retina, the optic nerve or the cortex. In such cases, an electronic visual prosthesis, or bionic eye, may be the only option.
Michael Beyeler, an assistant professor of computer science and psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara, aims to bring to the mainstream an AI-powered bionic eye that can generate artificial vision, in an effort to increase the quality of life for patients who are blind or visually impaired.