The once-sighted blind - i.e. those who were born with sight, but have lost it – may soon be granted partial reprieve from their blindness, and the miracle technology that will do that is a small camera connected to electrodes that are implanted in the brain. In fact, there are already 16 people worldwide with such a camera “installed”, but at the moment, the “electronic eye” only allows its wearers to see “flashes of light”.

Moreover, the entire kit is actually pretty heavy, and wearers can only turn on the camera for an hour a day, to prevent strain on the optic nerves.

Nevertheless, scientists believe that this is an excellent opportunity to develop a permanent solution to blindness; something akin to the eye-visor Lt. Geordi La Forge (from Star Trek) wears.

P.S. Yes, I know this doesn’t have anything to do with LASIK eye correction surgery, but I felt that it was interesting enough to merit a short post.

[News via News 14 Carolina]