Researchers use visual cortical prosthesis to help bring sight to the blind

Baylor College of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles and Second Sight Medical Products (Los Angeles, Calif.) are using a visual cortical prosthesis to help bring sight to the blind.

The study is in the early phases but participants are able to see points of light on a computer screen using a device called Orion. To put it simply, researchers are bypassing broken optical nerves that don't work and inputting visual information seen by a camera, worn on a pair of glasses, directly into the Orion device implanted in the brain. Benjamin Spencer talks about his experience taking part in the study and Dr. Daniel Yoshor explains the science that goes into bringing sight to the blind.