The Australian Research Council (ARC) has granted a second consortium AUD$8 million to work on inventing a bionic eye.
The Victorian consortium will involve engineering and computer scientists from Monash University, together with medical researchers from the Department of Physiology and Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Victorian company Grey Innovation, and micro-manufacturing company MiniFab.
The team aims to develop a device that is implanted directly on the region of the brain that processes vision signals (the visual cortex). This will provide treatment for the majority of forms of blindness, including partial blindness.
Head of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at Monash University Professor Arthur Lowery said the funding will allow the team to take their concept to the next level.
"We will develop a device that stimulates the brain using hundreds of electrodes. This electrode array can be placed conveniently on the surface of the brain, so the implant is not overly intrusive -- a relatively simple and safe procedure," Professor Lowery said.
"The electrodes stimulate the vision areas of the brain mimicking the stimulation they would normally receive through the optic pathway. An advantage of this approach is that it bypasses damaged or dead parts of the visual pathway including the retina and optic nerve. This means that it can cure up to 90% of cases of blindness.
"Also, because the brain has a larger surface area than the retina it is possible to get a much higher resolution image than with retinal implants. It does not destroy the patient's residual vision, it enhances it," Professor Lowery said.
The funding comes under the ARC's 'Research in Bionic Vision Science and Technology Initiative', which was developed in response to the Australia 2020 Summit.
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