Growing a New Eye (With a Little Help From Technology and You)

Posted by erinleecarr

From http://www.motherboard.tv/

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When I grew up, I wanted to be like Sarah Connor in Terminator II: leather clad, ass-kicking, and mean as a snake. But my male compatriots yearned to be Arnold: part-man, part-machine. Our society has always nurtured a fascination with the melding of humanity and science. And its origins were often more based in fantasy—see sci-fi favorites such as Darth Vader, Robocop, or Tom Cruise—than reality.

But the melding of metal and flesh begs a few questions. If you put metal parts into an individual do they stop being a human? How much metal can you put into a person before he/she isn’t a person? At what point does the line between humanity and AI bleed into each other? Obviously, this amalgamation provokes a certain amount of conflict, anxiety, and identity crisis.

But what about people who aren’t characters in movies, everyday people who want to fuse the concepts for the betterment of their bodies and minds? Enter Tanya Vlach, a women who lost her eye during a horrific car accident. Before the accident she was a well-known visual artist and performer. Afterwards, she had a frontal lobe minor brain injury and was missing an eye. Despite her subsequent depression, Tanya refused to be victim of her circumstances and sought a fix through technology. What if she could see again, but better? Couldn’t she just put a bionic eye in her socket and move on?

She pitched her idea to Wired founder Kevin Kelly; his curiosity was piqued. He put out a personal call to engineers to help build an implant of a miniature camera inside her prosthetic eye. Hundreds of scientists and engineers responded with their ideas. But such innovations don’t come cheaply; insurance wasn’t going to pay for this, and she didn’t have the money.

In June, Tanya started a Kickstarter campaign. It was quickly picked up by the Internet, and suddenly she was the newest poster child for transhumanism and body modification. Her project, Eye-Camera: an experiment in wearable technology, cybernetics, and perception. The project inspired frequent questions on her website ranging from the laughable (“Are you a Spy”) to the hopeful and suspicious (“are you starting a cyborg revolution?”). One can dream.

Tanya continues to travel and discuss her plight and subsequent plan of action across the United States; on Sunday July 31st she comes to Brooklyn for an eye fundraiser at Brooklyn Winery. Come prepared to discuss cyborgs, eyes, and the art that lies in between.

Bin Laden Killing Team May Have Used Night Vision Contact Lenses

Jesus Diaz

from: http://gizmodo.com/

Christian at Military.com's Kit Up! has heard an interesting rumor on one of the technologies that Seal Team 6 used to kill Osama bin Laden: Night vision contact lenses! Holy pants, Batman.

I heard a rumor that the Team guys who busted bin Laden might have been wearing "cat vision" contact lenses that literally give the wearer night vision for a limited time without having to wear the bulky, heavy NVGs.

Night Vision Goggles technology has advanced quickly over the last decade. Right now, the most advanced setups are panoramic models that use four 16mm image intensifying tubes, which provide with a 100º horizontal by 40º vertical field of view. They are made by the same company that makes the F-35 demon helmet as well as other manufacturers.

These helmets are still limited, however, especially for special operation teams. While they are better than your standard NVGs, they are quite bulky and heavier and still don't provide with the natural field of view that would be ideal for field operations.

These rumored night vision contacts, however, are almost sci-fi material. People have been speculating about this technology for almost a decade, so perhaps they exist in some hidden Area 51 lab. If anyone has access to these, that would be the SEALs from Team 6. We already know that these guys have access to really advanced, completely unknown technology like their stealth transport helicopters. I wouldn't be surprised if they had other toys like these. [Kit Up]

Scientists grow 'embryonic eye' in test tube

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Eye transplants to cure blindness have taken a step closer after scientists managed to 'grow' a retina in the laboratory for the first time.

Cultured stem cells spontaneously organise themselves into an optic cup 

By Richard Alleyne, 

Science Correspondent

Researchers were amazed when stem cells in a test tube spontaneously organised themselves into a complex structure that resembles the developing embryonic eye.

The surprising development could lead eventually to whole retinas being cultured and then transplanted, restoring sight in the blind and visually impaired.

The team from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan, first cultivated embryonic stem cells in a test tube and then added proteins to trigger them into developing.

They hoped that they would form a recognisable organ but were still stunned when over 10 days they clustered together and began to grow the "optical cup" of a retina.

Tests showed that the cells were functioning normally and were capable of communicating with each other.

The research was done on mouse eyes, but there is no reason why a similar technique would not work on humans, said the experts.

They hope that within 10 years to be able to start clinical trials on retina implants.

"This is an absolutely stunning achievement," said Professor Robin Ali, an ophthalmologist at University College London.

"It is a landmark not just for the retina but for regenerative medicine as a whole."
More than a million people in Britain suffer from vision problems caused by a damaged or malfunctioning retinas.
The retina is the "business end" of the eye, where nerve cells convert light into electrical and chemical signals that are sent to the brain down the optic nerve.

If it is not working then the eye is useless.

Professor Yoshiki Sasai, lead author said: "What we've been able to do in this study is resolve a nearly century-old problem in embryology, by showing that retinal precursors have the inherent ability to give rise to the complex structure of the optic cup."

His team, who filmed the technique as it unfolded, grew floating clusters of the mouse cells in a special tissue culture in the laboratory that had previously been successfully used to make a variety of brain cells.

By adding particular proteins they were able to get the cells to build a three dimensional layered structure reminiscent of the optic cup within 10 days.

The retinal neurons ultimately organised into a six-layer structure closely resembling that of a retina shortly after birth.

This could eventually lead to treatments aimed at repairing the eyes of people with conditions that limit or destroy their sight.

Potential applications include regenerative medicine approaches to the treatment of progressive genetic disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa.

Prof Ali, who reviewed the research published in Nature, said: "For the first time, we see unfolding in real time the beautiful events that shape the early stages of mammalian eye development.

"But even more remarkable is that these are not recordings from live animals, but of self-organising 3-D cultures of embryonic stem cells."

You Always Wanted Pictures Shot Straight Into Your Retinas, Right?

"Retina display technology" sounds frightening if you think about it for more than a second. Brother's upcoming specs beam 800x600 images refreshed at 60hz directly onto your retina, so that they appear, transparently, about a meter in front of you.

They're coming out next year, though they haven't set a price. Separate, NEC's planning a pair of similar shades, except that they'd translate foreign languages in real time, with subtitles hovering in front of you, like you're watching a movie of your life. Which is how I feel a bunch of the time anyway. [Register, FarEastGizmos via Popular Science via Engadget]

One-Eyed Filmmaker Goes Bionic

'Eyeborg' Wants to Transform Loss Into Superhuman Strength

By KI MAE HEUSSNER

Filmmaker Rob Spence shows a prosthetic eye with a red LED. Spence is working with an engineer to create a prosthetic embedded with a wireless video camera.

(Team Eyeborg)

Meet the newest Six Million Dollar Man.

Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence, who lost an eye in a childhood accident, is determined to replace his artificial eye with a video camera and said he's almost there.

Like the fictional bionic man, Spence wants to transform his loss into a superhuman strength. But instead of using his enhanced ability for secret agent-type espionage, he wants to use it for his art.

Calling himself an "eyeborg," the 36-year-old, who is originally from California, wants to produce videos with his camera eye that explore privacy and surveillance issues. As surveillance and other hidden cameras increasingly monitor our daily lives, Spence wants his unusual perspective to serve as a check.

"We're sleepwalking into an Orwellian society," he said. "There's surveillance, but who's doing the surveillance. Who's watching the watchers?"

Last week, for the first time, he and his team succeeded in outfitting his prosthetic eye with an electronic device.

Although it wasn't yet a camera, the red LED gave them (and potential supporters) confidence that a prosthetic eye could house a working device and battery.

"This is every adult male's fantasy," Spence quipped. And though it's a minor detour, he hopes it will draw attention to grander plans.

The Eyeborg Project

Spence lost his eye when he was 11 years old. He was playing with a gun at his grandfather's farm in Ireland; when it backfired, it severely injured his eye. Years later, he had his eye removed.

As a filmmaker, wanting to turn his eye into a camera is only natural, he said.

He's been working with his ocularist and a couple of camera companies for a while, but launched a blog in November to officially announce his plans.

In January, he migrated his blogspot to a dot-com and revealed the Eyeborg Project.

Along with Kostas Grammatis, a former SpaceX avionics systems engineer who joined the project after reading a Wired story about him in December, Spence is working with Santa Clara, Calif.-based Omnivision, Inc., and RF-Links in Toronto to develop the working camera eye.

Wearable Video Camera Is Feasible

Omnivision develops the tiny cameras used in phones, laptops and medical equipment. RF-Links specializes in wireless audio and video equipment.

The team recently succeeded in creating a prosthetic eye with a video camera that allowed Spence to transmit video for about three minutes. But, Grammatis, 23, said the image quality wasn't good enough to share.

"We have some other prototypes coming down the pipe," Grammatis said. "What we've demonstrated is its feasibility."

He said they want to wait for a broader debut when they've managed to create a device that can record producation-quality film.

One-Eyed Artist Also Seeks Webcam Eye

However, as incredulous as it may seem, Spence isn't the only one-eyed creative looking to replace an artificial eye with a webcam.

In November, Tanya Vlach, a San Francisco artist sent ripples through the blogosphere when she posted a "call for engineers" on her Web site, asking for advice on a bionic eye.

After Vlach lost her left eye in a 2005 car accident, the 35-year-old artist launched a blog to document her experience.

Titled One-Eyed, the site is about "the future of sight, a chronicle of her adjustment to a monocular life."

Given the preponderance of miniature cameras in cell phones, webcams and other mobile cameras, she wondered whether a camera small enough to fit in her prosthetic eye might also exist.

Vlach said she's been working on a documentary about her accident and researching the eye-cam idea for more than a year.

"It was my way of recreating the eye that I lost," she told ABCNews.com in November.

Although the two have separate projects, they're in contact and, Spence said, are actually planning a "one-eyed party" in San Francisco for later this year.

But it isn't just one-eyed artists who are interested in wearable technology that records and transmits video of the day-to-day.

Spence said he has been working with Steve Mann, an MIT graduate and University of Toronto engineering professor who is a pioneer in wearable computing.

For the last 30 years, Mann has lived as a "cyborg" glogger -- short for cyborg logger -- with a wireless video camera that allows him to transmit the daily events of his life to the Internet .

Glogging Preceded Blogging

Mann said about 30,000 gloggers around the world use a transmitting video camera strapped to some part of their body to broadcast the events of their lives with others via the Web.

Like Spence, they want to be able to document their lives and share their perspectives. But instead of writing about their experiences on blogs, they simply share the video.

"Glogging has been around a lot longer than blogging," Mann said.

And, Spence said, it has a special effect on the imagination.

"It taps into some kind of immature pop culture supero hero fantasy," he said.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Bionic eye gives blind man sight

Advertisement

Ron explains how being fitted with a 'bionic eye' has changed his life.

A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye.

Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London's Moorfield's eye hospital.

He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks, using the bionic eye, known as Argus II.

It uses a camera and video processor mounted on sunglasses to send captured images wirelessly to a tiny receiver on the outside of the eye.

My one ambition at the moment is to be able to go out on a nice, clear evening and be able to pick up the moon Ron

In turn, the receiver passes on the data via a tiny cable to an array of electrodes which sit on the retina - the layer of specialised cells that normally respond to light found at the back of the eye.

When these electrodes are stimulated they send messages along the optic nerve to the brain, which is able to perceive patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to which electrodes have been stimulated.

The hope is that patients will learn to interpret the visual patterns produced into meaningful images.

The bionic eye has been developed by US company Second Sight. So far 18 patients across the world, including three at Moorfields, have been fitted with the device.

FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME More from Today programme

It is designed to help people, like Ron, who have been made blind through retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye diseases that cause degeneration of the retina.

The disease progresses over a number of years, normally after people have been diagnosed when they are children.

It is estimated between 20,000 to 25,000 are affected in the UK.

Encouraging progress

Ron, who has not revealed his surname, told the BBC: "For 30 years I've seen absolutely nothing at all, it's all been black, but now light is coming through. Suddenly to be able to see light again is truly wonderful.

"I can actually sort out white socks, grey socks and black socks."

"My one ambition at the moment is to be able to go out on a nice, clear evening and be able to pick up the moon."

Ron's wife Tracy is also hugely encouraged by the progress he has made.

How the bionic eye works.

She said: "He can do a lot more now than he could before, doing the washing, being able to tell white from a coloured item.

"I've taught him how to use the washing machine and away he goes. It's just the ironing next."

Consultant retinal surgeon Lyndon da Cruz, who carried out Ron's operation said the patients were starting to get meaningful visual stimuli from the technology.

He said: "We are very encouraged by the trial's progress so far.

"The implants have been stable and functioning for six months, with consistent visual perceptions generated by the device.

"The trial remains inspiring in terms of presenting a very real and tangible step forward in treating patients with total vision loss.

"But with more than two years of the trial left to run, these are early days and continued testing will be crucial in determining the success of the new technology."

Gregoire Cosendai, of Second Sight, is convinced the technology will prove to be invaluable - but also admits there is still much work to be done.

He said: "We are trying to see what level of vision we can provide with this.

"Theoretically, the people should be able to have reasonably good level of vision.

"We are not there yet, but what we are trying to see how best they can use it in their normal life."

• Ron's progress will be featured on a BBC Inside Out documentary in the London area at 1930 GMT on 4 March.