Perhaps everyone dreams of having eyesight like superheroes. And it seems that very soon this will become a reality. Researchers from the University of Minnesota (USA) have created a prototype of a bionic eye that can restore sight to the blind and give superhuman abilities to the sighted. TengriMIX shares the details with you.
The scientists used a custom-built 3D printer to construct the prototype. First, they printed a base of silver particles inside a hemispherical glass dome. Then, using semiconducting polymer materials, they printed photodiodes – devices that can convert light into electrical signals – on top of the base.
The entire process took about an hour, after which the researchers got a bionic eye that converts light into electricity at 25 percent efficiency. This, of course, is less than our natural eyes can do, since they capture even a single photon.
So far, such an eye cannot be transplanted to humans. The glass dome is not very suitable for the eye socket, so scientists are looking to use a soft material to print a hemisphere. In addition, they want to add more photoreceptors to increase the efficiency of the device. Nevertheless, project co-author Michael McAlpine noted that this is a significant step toward creating implantable bionic eyes.
First, the invention showed that semiconductors produced by three-dimensional printing are as efficient as devices produced using expensive microfabrication technology, which greatly reduces the cost of such bionic eyes.
Secondly, for the first time, a method for printing semiconductors on a concave surface has been discovered, which in principle is not possible in microfabrication.
Such eyes could restore sight to the blind in the future, but they could also potentially improve the vision of anyone. However, it is still unclear whether perfectly healthy normal eyes would have to be removed and artificial eyes implanted. But the first step is to find a way to convert electrical signals into something the brain can interpret. When this happens, human vision will change dramatically, and with it, perhaps, the perception of the world.