Conventional colonoscopy is performed with a long, flexible tube called a colonoscope that is equipped with a tiny fiber-optic video camera and light at the end.
VOA: standard.2010.04.07
Then, on the following day, the doctors were asked to perform a series of simulated operations via a virtual reality program used to train doctors in laparoscopic surgery, a form of minimally invasive surgery performed with tiny incisions and a fiber-optic camera.
The camera sends images to the electrodes, essentially bypassing the damaged retina and tapping into the optic nerve that signals the brain to "see" images.