Four Australians endowed with bionics

Four blind Australians have regained the sense of vision during a clinical trial of a bionic eye in Melbourne.

Patients, who had lost their sight because of degenerative retinitis pigmentosa, could sense light and darkness, but did not see a hand waving before them before the trial.

According to Bionic Vision Technologies, patients can now distinguish surrounding objects in pixelated gray levels, allowing them to navigate without the help of guide dogs, a cane or their family members. .

This is the first time that a secure surgical approach, with an implant in the retina, has been successfully tested in a patient in Australia.

According to lead researcher Penny Allen, technology could be a game changer for more than 4,000 Australians affected by retinitis pigmentosa, as there is no way to delay or cure the genetic disorder.

"This is now a very important cause of blindness among people of working age, our patients are between the late thirties and the mid-sixties," she told AAP.

"We are very happy with their progress and they are really happy, and that's the best thing."

Professor Allen, chief surgeon of the Center of Eye Research Australia, will present the study at the annual Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists' Scientific Meeting in Adelaide on Monday.

Professor Allen said Australian technology was simpler and safer, while researchers had designed their own vision-processing software.

The bionic eye works by capturing images with the help of a camera connected to glasses and transmitting them to an external processing unit carried in a purse or hung on a belt.

The information is then sent back to a device magnetically attached to the patient's scalp, which is connected via a probe to the implanted device in his or her eyes and is then treated by the brain.

After the surgical procedures, the next phase of the study began, with the participants removing the technology from the lab and returning home.

First and foremost, they had to undergo training including obstacle courses and other tests, while learning to "trust" what they see after years of absence. of vision, said Professor Allen.

"We work with them to identify what they want to do at home, the normal tasks we all perform."

"One patient sorting the laundry, the colors of the whites, and another wishes to be able to sail independently to certain things in the yard, like the lemon tree."