New York: Can a device restore vision in a blind person? Well, perhaps there’s one now! Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink declared that its experimental implant, which apparently restores vision, received the tag of a ‘breakthrough device’ from the US Food and Drug Administration.
This tag is usually given to those medical devices that provide treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions. The device is known as Blindsight. In a post on X, Musk claimed that the device would enable even those who had lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see. However, Neuralink the device is yet to move into human trials.
The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.
Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.
To set expectations correctly, the vision… https://t.co/MYLHNcPrw6 pic.twitter.com/RAenDpd3fx
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2024
Neuralink is building a brain chip interface that can be implanted within the skull and could eventually help disabled patients to move or communicate again freely, and also restore vision, reported the Reuters. The company was founded in 2016 by Musk and a group of engineers.
Features of the device
The device has a chip that processes and transmits neural signals. These signals can be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone, reports claimed.
“…to set expectations correctly, the vision will first be at low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential to be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge,” Musk had stated on X.
In his post, the Tesla CEO had even posted a photo of Geordi La Forge, a character from the sci-fi TV series Star Trek, who is blind but uses different devices that help him to see.
