The technology, developed in a partnership between the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy, bypasses the eyeball completely and sends messages to the brain.
Researchers made attempts to stimulate the optic nerve in the 1990s, with inconclusive results.
EPFL’s Medtronic chair in neuroengineering Dr Diego Ghezzi said: “Back then, they used cuff nerve electrodes. The problem is that these electrodes are rigid and they move around, so the electrical stimulation of the nerve fibres is unstable. The patients had a difficult time interpreting the stimulation, because they kept on seeing something different. Moreover, the cuff electrodes probably had limited selectivity because they recruited superficial fibres.”
