This article is compiled from the Phoenix Technology Channel, Original Author Russ Juskalian, translator Frost Leaf, Ai Faner released .
▲ The electrical signals of Gomez’s brain. Each grid represents an electrode. The curved lines in the grid show signals from neurons.
Bernardeta Gómez pointed his finger at a black line on the whiteboard in front of him and spoke the Spanish accent, saying “Allí” (“There” in Spanish).
For a 57-year-old woman, there’s nothing to show off about seeing such a black line drawn on a whiteboard. But for Gomez, who has been blind for 16 years, this is remarkable. At the age of 42, optic neuropathy damaged the nerves that connected Gomez’s eyes and brain, and she was completely blind, not even feeling a little light.
After 16 years, Gomez was given the opportunity to see the world around him in vague terms for 6 months, even though she only saw yellow-and-white dots and patterns.
What made Gomez bright again was a pair of glasses equipped with a miniature camera. The video was processed by a computer and converted into electrical signals. A cable dangles from the roof and transmits the signal through a port implanted in the skull to 100 electrodes implanted in Gomez’s visual cortex.
▲ Gomez wearing camera-equipped glasses
With this system, Gomez can see the ceiling lights, people, letters printed on paper, basic graphics, and she can even play a simple Pac-Man game.
Gomez regained its light for the first time at the end of 2018, the result of decades of research by Eduardo Fernandez, director of the Department of Neuroengineering at Miguel Hernández University in Elche, Spain .
Fernandez has set a goal for himself: to restore vision to as many blind patients as possible worldwide. Data show that there are 36 million blind people worldwide. Fernandez’s method is exciting because it bypasses the eyes and optic nerves.
Most of the early research that has brought blind people back to light has tried to help them restore vision through artificial eyes or retinas. These studies have also achieved some success.
But the vast majority of blind patients represented by Gomez are damaged by the nerves that connect the retina and the visual cortex, and artificial eyes are not enough to let them see the light again. This is why in 2015 Second Sight gave up its 20-year effort to shift its research focus from the retina to the visual cortex.
Second Sight was approved in 2011 and 2013 to sell an artificial retina in Europe and the United States. Second Sight claims that more than 350 people are using its Argus II artificial retina.
In my last visit to Elche (referring to the original author Russ Juskalian), Fernandez told me that the advancement of implantation technology, a more accurate understanding of the human visual system, made him Obtained the confidence that the blind can see the light directly by manipulating the brain. “Information in the nervous system is no different from information in electronic devices.”
It may sound bold to make a blind person see the light again by transmitting a signal directly to the brain, but mainstream medical equipment has been using its basic principles for decades. Fernandes explained, “Now a large number of electronic devices interact with the human body, and the pacemaker is one of them. A representative of the sensor system is the cochlear implant.”
