Normal vision is based on more than one hundred million receptors in each eye that process light, say experts.
It works like bifocals in that you look up to see the display so your normal vision below is never blocked.
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Although the resulting vision is not the same as when these patients had normal vision, investigators involved in the clinical trial of the Argus II are eager about the approval.
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The photoswitches can be used to control the activity of proteins in the eye that are essential to transmitting information from the outside world to the brain in normal vision.
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As the price of e-readers approaches zero, it opens up more opportunities for people who have been left on the wrong side of the digital divide to access the same wealth of information, entertainment and education as people with normal vision and average-or-better income.
Normal vision is based on more than one hundred million receptors in each eye, but it is impossible to squeeze that many electrodes into a tiny device that has to lay on the retina, said John Wyatt, a professor in the department of electrical engineering at MIT who has been working on a retinal prosthesis since 1988.
The company said the screen on its Glass headset actually sits above the wearer's normal field of vision, not unlike a car's sun visor, and is meant for quick glances, not prolonged viewing.
"Sense, taste and smell and vision and hearing have a normal range, but there can be a hundred-fold between the ability of people to discern a taste or odour - it's not uncommon, " says Dietrich.
My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal.
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Mr. BOBBY BOBO: Our population is becoming more and more elderly, and as you become older you have vision issues, and people want to be able to lead a normal life.
Yet some sense of normal life is returning, said Mia Marina, a program support manager for World Vision's Nargis response efforts.
Scientists are also unsure about the quality of vision that could be restored from stimulating nerve cells alone, as, in normal circumstances, there is a sigificant amount of visual processing that occurs between the photoreceptors and the nerve cells.
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