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It's been years in the making, but at long last the Argus II "bionic eye" implant is being made available to the

American public. Lucky individuals like Ron (http://www.dvice.com/archives/2009/03/bionic_eye_give.php)

from Britain and the States' own Dean Lloyd (http://www.dvice.com/2013-8-6/these-camera-equipped-

glasses-restore-partial-vision-blind) already know what benefits the implant can afford those afflicted with

the retina-eating condition known as retinitis pigmentosa.

Lloyd was able to receive his Argus II way back in 2007 and Ron has had his since at least 2009, so you might

think that the public would have had access to the artificial retina implant much sooner

(http://www.dvice.com/2013-2-14/partially-blind-can-now-officially-get-bionic-eyes) than this winter.

Developing a group of Argus II-equipped patients large enough for a test study, however, took some time. Each

of the remarkable headsets runs about $1 million, so shelling out the abosolute minimum of 30 units cost

BIONIC EYES (/TAGS/BIONIC-EYES) BLINDNESS (/TAGS/BLINDNESS) ARGUS II (/TAGS/ARGUS-II)

Colin Druce-McFadden (/author/colin-druce-mcfadden) Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - 2:11pm

Bionic eyes coming to the U.S. by year's end

Argus' developers at Second Sight quite the pretty penny.

Thankfully the study has now been successfully completed, finding that patients equipped with Argus II are

twice as likely to detect complex shapes as those who did not. The result allowed the Argus II to be approved

as a humanitarian device, meaning it's safe to use and does in fact help those who wear it to see.

The aid given to the wearers of Argus II headsets don't actually regain sight as we know it, but are rather fed

enhanced outlines of objects before them, which they can, in time, learn to interpret fairly reliably. The Argus II

also doesn't help those suffering from other sorts of blindness, but the folks at Second Sight aren't finished

healing the blind just yet. The more advanced Argus III is already in the works as well as an implant that will

send visual data directly into the brain, bypassing the ocular nerve entirely. Eventually, the folks at Second

Sight hope to create bionic eyes that actually see better than those you were born with — something they say

they already have the tech to do.

Second Sight (http://2-sight.eu/en/product-en), via Singularity Hub

(http://singularityhub.com/2013/11/19/bionic-eye-implant-will-become-available-in-u-s-in-coming-

weeks/)

For the latest tech stories, follow DVICE on Twitter

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