09-24-2024, 09:04 AM
Neuralink Gets FDA Go-ahead for Developing Device that Lets Blind-from-birth People
Neuralink, the company founded by Elon Musk that's working on brain user interfaces, announced that it received US-FDA device designation for a neural implant that lets visually impaired people see. Neuralink is calling this device "Blindsight." This paves the way for the public to participate in the development of the device. The device lets those with full vision loss, including damaged optic nerves, to see, provided that the brain's visual cortex is intact. Commenting on the development, Musk set expectations for what the very first version of the device is capable of—it interfaces with the visual cortex, and lets visually impaired people, including those that have been blind from birth, see for the first time, however, this vision is of low resolution—resembling "Atari graphics," as Musk puts it. It's what he said next that is raising eyebrows.
If Neuralink succeeds in building and deploying the first generation of "Blindsight," Musk says that future generations of the device will only grow in resolution, and acquire capabilities such as seeing the electromagnetic spectrum beyond natural human perception, such as infrared, ultraviolet, and even radar waves—something Geordi La Forge, the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise in the cult sci-fi show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" does, with his device called simply "the visor."
https://www.techpowerup.com/326739/neura...i-la-forge
Neuralink, the company founded by Elon Musk that's working on brain user interfaces, announced that it received US-FDA device designation for a neural implant that lets visually impaired people see. Neuralink is calling this device "Blindsight." This paves the way for the public to participate in the development of the device. The device lets those with full vision loss, including damaged optic nerves, to see, provided that the brain's visual cortex is intact. Commenting on the development, Musk set expectations for what the very first version of the device is capable of—it interfaces with the visual cortex, and lets visually impaired people, including those that have been blind from birth, see for the first time, however, this vision is of low resolution—resembling "Atari graphics," as Musk puts it. It's what he said next that is raising eyebrows.
If Neuralink succeeds in building and deploying the first generation of "Blindsight," Musk says that future generations of the device will only grow in resolution, and acquire capabilities such as seeing the electromagnetic spectrum beyond natural human perception, such as infrared, ultraviolet, and even radar waves—something Geordi La Forge, the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise in the cult sci-fi show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" does, with his device called simply "the visor."
https://www.techpowerup.com/326739/neura...i-la-forge