3 ms·

This is an interesting area of research but I'm skeptical of any world first claims. I remember a camera going to a visual area implant like... 15 years ago? An

This is an interesting area of research but I'm skeptical of any world first claims. I remember a camera going to a visual area implant like... 15 years ago? And the guy got something like a hundred pixels. Not super practical but he could see things crossing his field of vision, locate certain shapes reliably etc. For a blind person that can be life changing for sure but it was a short term thing and a prototype. Love seeing new research in this space but the science is nowhere near ready. Neuralink type stuff and other bleeding edge tech gets us like 5% of the to making this kind of thing practical for everyday life. By all means make it rain on researchers doing this stuff but don't expect miracles. The human vision system is incredible and we barely know how it works let alone how to imitate its functions. Fund basic research!!

dekhn 6y ago
It's not the first example; I can find other things reported from this year to a decade back, but in those cases, they were wiring into the retina, rather than later in the visual system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis)
- Falling3 6y ago
  The earlier versions of this technology that I can recall used an oral interface. So this is definitely a big step up from that.
  - dekhn 6y ago
    That's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport
nkoren 6y ago
I recall watching a film about an 8x8 matrix of electrodes being inserted in the gap between the two hemispheres, just above the occipital lobe, producing 64 pixels worth of vision. The recipient had what looked like a DIN socket in the side of his head. I saw this film in a psychology 101 class at a community college, so it couldn't have been top-secret bleeding-edge research or anything. The year was 1991. Every few years since then -- and seriously, it's happened at least 10 times now -- I've seen something similar announced as though it's a major breakthrough. I don't understand what's going on. Are each of these announcements -- and that 1991 film itself -- merely aspirational bullshit, which never really come off as planned? Or do they each represent distinct branches of research whose apparent similarity is merely a function of my layman's understanding?
- nkoren 6y ago
  Oh, I see, of course Wikipedia has the answer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interface#Vision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interfa... > Dobelle's first prototype was implanted into "Jerry", a man blinded in adulthood, in 1978. A single-array BCI containing 68 electrodes was implanted onto Jerry's visual cortex and succeeded in producing phosphenes, the sensation of seeing light. The system included cameras mounted on glasses to send signals to the implant. Initially, the implant allowed Jerry to see shades of grey in a limited field of vision at a low frame-rate. This also required him to be hooked up to a mainframe computer, but shrinking electronics and faster computers made his artificial eye more portable and now enable him to perform simple tasks unassisted.[46] > In 2002, Jens Naumann, also blinded in adulthood, became the first in a series of 16 paying patients to receive Dobelle's second generation implant, marking one of the earliest commercial uses of BCIs. The second generation device used a more sophisticated implant enabling better mapping of phosphenes into coherent vision. Phosphenes are spread out across the visual field in what researchers call "the starry-night effect". Immediately after his implant, Jens was able to use his imperfectly restored vision to drive an automobile slowly around the parking area of the research institute.[citation needed] Unfortunately, Dobelle died in 2004[47] before his processes and developments were documented. Subsequently, when Mr. Naumann and the other patients in the program began having problems with their vision, there was no relief and they eventually lost their "sight" again. Naumann wrote about his experience with Dobelle's work in Search for Paradise: A Patient's Account of the Artificial Vision Experiment[48] and has returned to his farm in Southeast Ontario, Canada, to resume his normal activities.[49]

dekhn 6y ago

It's not the first example; I can find other things reported from this year to a decade back, but in those cases, they were wiring into the retina, rather than later in the visual system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis)

Falling3 6y ago
The earlier versions of this technology that I can recall used an oral interface. So this is definitely a big step up from that.
- dekhn 6y ago
  That's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport

nkoren 6y ago

I recall watching a film about an 8x8 matrix of electrodes being inserted in the gap between the two hemispheres, just above the occipital lobe, producing 64 pixels worth of vision. The recipient had what looked like a DIN socket in the side of his head. I saw this film in a psychology 101 class at a community college, so it couldn't have been top-secret bleeding-edge research or anything. The year was 1991. Every few years since then -- and seriously, it's happened at least 10 times now -- I've seen something similar announced as though it's a major breakthrough. I don't understand what's going on. Are each of these announcements -- and that 1991 film itself -- merely aspirational bullshit, which never really come off as planned? Or do they each represent distinct branches of research whose apparent similarity is merely a function of my layman's understanding?

nkoren 6y ago
Oh, I see, of course Wikipedia has the answer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interface#Vision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interfa... > Dobelle's first prototype was implanted into "Jerry", a man blinded in adulthood, in 1978. A single-array BCI containing 68 electrodes was implanted onto Jerry's visual cortex and succeeded in producing phosphenes, the sensation of seeing light. The system included cameras mounted on glasses to send signals to the implant. Initially, the implant allowed Jerry to see shades of grey in a limited field of vision at a low frame-rate. This also required him to be hooked up to a mainframe computer, but shrinking electronics and faster computers made his artificial eye more portable and now enable him to perform simple tasks unassisted.[46] > In 2002, Jens Naumann, also blinded in adulthood, became the first in a series of 16 paying patients to receive Dobelle's second generation implant, marking one of the earliest commercial uses of BCIs. The second generation device used a more sophisticated implant enabling better mapping of phosphenes into coherent vision. Phosphenes are spread out across the visual field in what researchers call "the starry-night effect". Immediately after his implant, Jens was able to use his imperfectly restored vision to drive an automobile slowly around the parking area of the research institute.[citation needed] Unfortunately, Dobelle died in 2004[47] before his processes and developments were documented. Subsequently, when Mr. Naumann and the other patients in the program began having problems with their vision, there was no relief and they eventually lost their "sight" again. Naumann wrote about his experience with Dobelle's work in Search for Paradise: A Patient's Account of the Artificial Vision Experiment[48] and has returned to his farm in Southeast Ontario, Canada, to resume his normal activities.[49]