I doubt they would have removed the Microelectrode arrays from the brain, that would have caused serious damage as the MEAs would be encapsulated in glial scar

I doubt they would have removed the Microelectrode arrays from the brain, that would have caused serious damage as the MEAs would be encapsulated in glial scar tissue. The article made it sound like they just removed the two jacks from his skull. The devices were probably Utah Microelectrode Arrays(MEAs) the MEAs were no doubt implanted on the visual cortex on the cerebral cortex to induce phospehnes. This is no holy grail, and MEAs have provided computer-brain interfaces since the 80's. check out my other comments in the thread for more information