A tiny eye implant helps legally blind patients read again – here’s how

For years, these patients’ worlds had shrunk, their central vision fading into shadows and blurs. But in a modest tasting room in California, a new technology brought unexpected light. When Science Corporation CEO Max Hodak watched a video of a legally blind patient rereading, he was shocked. It marked a leap in the restoration of vision and the promise of a breakthrough. This tiny chip implant called Prima could mean life-changing clarity for the millions whose vision has been darkened over the years.

The implant is no larger than a grain of salt and was developed by Science Corporation in California. This device acts as a replacement for damaged retinal cells that illuminate our world and determine our point of view. People with age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, know all too well the devastation that comes with losing that central vision. It robs them of faces, the comfort of words on a page, and even the safety of seeing clearly in low light. But Prima promises to restore a glimpse of what’s been lost – and recent trial results seem to support this promise.

A new vision

AMD begins quietly, as cells in the retina, which converts light into signals for the brain, begin to deteriorate. Over time, this degenerative disease blurs the center of a person’s vision, making it difficult to focus on letters or identify faces. For millions, these photoreceptors disappear.

The Prima implant aims to fill in that dark area. To imagine this, imagine a pair of digital glasses equipped with a miniature camera. This device captures the world in pixels and transmits information via infrared light to the microchip implanted directly under the patient’s retina. Nearly 400 tiny pixels convert this incoming light into electrical signals and send them to the brain. Suddenly objects take shape.

Hodak, former president of Neuralink (an Elon Musk startup focused on making brain implants), marvels at what his team’s implant has accomplished. “To my knowledge, this is the first time that recovery of the ability to read fluently has ever been definitively demonstrated in blind patients,” he says. say.

Read again even in low light

Prima has been implanted in 32 people so far who are still part of an ongoing clinical trial. They were all once legally blind. Thanks to this new implant, they now see five additional lines on the standard eye exam chart, changing their lives in remarkable ways. From an initial vision of 20/450 (legally blind in the US), some are now moving closer to 20/160. The best performers, aided by the device’s zoom and magnification functions, even reach 20/63 – a visual acuity that was unthinkable for them before the trial.

One participant can now read from a book, play cards and even solve a crossword puzzle – activities that were out of reach just months ago. The ability to perceive shapes and objects is not the same as seeing ‘naturally’, but it is a life-changing change.

But Prima is still imperfect. The images of the implant are in grayscale with a yellowish tint. Patients should also turn on the zoom function to focus on fine details. Some may find this process of “seeing” less intuitive than natural vision, but most patients adapted quickly.

A vision for the future

For those whose lives were once darkened by AMD, the implant offers the rarest thing of all: a restoration of independence. Yet Prima’s journey is not over yet. The trial is ongoing and researchers are closely monitoring side effects. Some patients suffered minor injuries – a retinal tear, a small blood leak – all of which were treated with care. But like many others, this approach is not without risks.

Science Corporation knows the stakes. They hope Prima can continue as the first breakthrough of its kind for those who have ever faced permanent blindness. As Hodak points out, early results show a “definitive” change: a recovery of the ability to read, see, and ultimately regain independence.

With 20 million Americans at risk for AMD and an aging population worldwide, Prima is part of a quiet revolution in vision technology.