Bionic implant allows blind woman to see flashes of light

Bloomberg : After receiving the first-ever bionic eye implant, a blind woman can now see spots of light for the first time in 20 years. Dianne Ashworth has profound vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited, degenerative eye disease that causes photoreceptor cells in the retina to die. Researchers at Bionic Vision Australia are developing a microchip that can be implanted in the retina of patients with vision impairment from the disease. When the implanted chip receives an electrical signal, it stimulates cells in the retina that connect to the optic nerve. Those impulses pass from the optic nerve to the brain’s vision processing centers, where they are interpreted as an image. After having successfully implanted the device, the researchers are now working with Ashworth to determine what she sees when the retina is stimulated. Although the device will not restore normal vision, it could provide enough visual information to make the user more independent and mobile.