These results were presented by Professor Mark Humayun of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dr. Humayan said, “We have successfully completed enrollment and implantation of three patients in the trial. And we have found that the devices are indeed electrically conducting, and can be used by the patients to detect light or even to distinguish between objects such as a cup or plate in forced choice tests conducted with one patient so far.”
Other researchers continue work to develop this and similar devices to restore sight to the blind, most notably Dr. William Dobelle, whose work was covered in a Wired magazine cover article. However, Dr. Dobelle’s work requires electrodes to be implanted directly on the surface of the brain. Dr. Humayun’s work replaces brain surgery with more accessable eye surgery and is thus seen as a major advance in making vision replacement to the blind a potenial reality.