sunglasses for 'Bionic eye' divulged

What looks like a pair of dark 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 unveiled a sunglasses prototype for a bionic eye, which researchers hope to implant in its first recipient by 2013, reports Xinhua.

The prototype uses a tiny video camera attached to the middle of a pair of sunglasses, which researchers designed to improve the sight of those suffering degenerative vision.


The camera captures images that are sent to a transmitter a patient wears in their shirt pocket or on a belt.

The signal is then sent using radio waves to a microchip implanted in a patient' s retina on the back of the eye.

Electrodes on the retina are then stimulated, which the brain interprets as an image.

"It's amazing technology," said Leighton Boyd, who has lost nearly all his vision as a sufferer of retinitis pigmentosa.