The scientists say one of the reasons that the implant is so revolutionary is that most implants are powered via complex systems that are implanted into the body via complex surgery.
The paper says that while retinal degenerative diseases can cause blindness as image capturing photoreceptors are damaged and die, the neurons in the inner retinal layers were images are processed are still in working order.
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Their tests showed that the brain responded to illuminating a single bipolar pixel, showing that a high-pixel density prosthetic could be nearer than we think.
The new bionic eye concept is instead powered by photovoltaic take in both power and visual information.
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