A Phosphene interpretation image
Now for some weird science from MIT's Cognitive and Brain Science Department. Peter Schiller, and his team, believe that people who have lost their vision due to injury by disease or accidents are still "capable of seeing." Through electronic stimulation of optical nerves, the team has shown the ability to induce a ghost image into research monkey eyesight.
Two make rhesus monkeys, fully able to see, were trained to look at two dots on a computer screen. When the monkey looks at the bigger of the two dot, it would be rewarded. Once the training was established, the team implanted electrodes into the monkey's visual cortex. One dot was removed from the computer screen and replaced with a Phosphene (seeing a light when there is no light). What the monkey then would see is a larger bright circle. (Remember pressing on your eyeballs and seeing bright lights? That was the phosphene effect.)
The researchers could adjust the size of the phosphene, and the monkeys responded accordingly.
Schiller's ultimate goal is to create a complete implant system that uses a camera to relay images to a person's eyes. The challenge, Schiller said, is to build a powerful enough system that will not damage the eyes further. I fear many monkeys will soon be suffering for this effort. Read more here.
Eavesdropper
