The magic eye

AT LEAST partial eyesight tothe blind may be restored,say researchers in the us ina recent study. An artificialvision system with tiny TVcameras in eyeglasses sending invisible laser-bornemessages to a computerinside the eye would perform this magic.

The computer, aboutthe size of the date on arupee coin, floats gently onthe thin, wet tissue of theretina, powered by solarcells activated by the laserbeam. The computer con-verts visual signals encodedin the laser beam to electrical impulses to be sent tothe brain, reporteAssociated Press recently.

If that sounds like Zsomething possible only inscience fiction movies, tsJoseph Rizzo, one of itsdevelopers, has an answer. He points tothe success of the electronic cochlearimplant, which is now enabling manydeaf people to hear.

The device, which is the first eye-on-a-chip, has just been completed at a costof us $500,000, Rizzo said. But massproduction of the chips should bring thecost down to as low as us $50 each, headded.