Neuralink, the brain-computer interface company founded by Elon Musk, has announced a groundbreaking development in vision restoration technology.
The company’s latest innovation – the Blindsight device, aims to restore vision to individuals who “have lost both eyes and their optic nerve, provided the visual cortex is intact”, according to an X post today from Elon Musk, Neuralink’s founder.
Musk said his device may “even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.”
Blindsight, which has already shown promising results in animal trials, works by bypassing the damaged optic nerve and directly stimulating the visual cortex of the brain. This allows individuals with intact visual cortexes to perceive visual information, even if they have been blind from birth.
Musk – currently the wealthiest man in the world– according to Forbes’s latest ranking, said that although initially, the device’s visual resolution may be low, eventually it has the potential to “be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths”.
He likened the current visualization from Blindsight to “Atari graphics”, an earlier computer imagery technology.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the Blindsight as a “breakthrough device,” a status that could accelerate its development and bring it closer to clinical use.
Neuralink’s announcement follows the successful demonstration of their first brain implant, which allowed a quadriplegic man to control a computer mouse with his thoughts. (See article insert above).
The company’s focus on restoring neuronal networks from the brain to the body continues to push the boundaries of medical technology.
As Neuralink progresses with its clinical trials, the world watches with anticipation to see how this innovative technology will transform human society, especially the lives of those living with visual impairments.
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