Artificial Retina (Accessible Preview)

Kathy Blake is blind but two years ago she got a glimmer of hope. She heard about an artificial retina being developed by a company called Second Sight and the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles. It was experimental, but Kathy was the perfect candidate. With funding from the National Science Foundation, a camera is built into a pair of glasses, sending radio signals to a tiny chip in the back of the retina. The chip, small enough to fit on a fingertip, is implanted surgically and stimulates nerves that lead to the vision center of the brain.

Producer/Distributor: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Production Year: 2009
Grade Level: 9-12