“People with a leading cause of blindness were able to read again thanks to a tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and specialized augmented glasses, according to study results published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The trial involved 38 European patients, all of whom had an advanced stage of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) known as geographic atrophy…

In the study, the participants, who had an average age of 79, were fitted with the ‘PRIMA device,’ a system meant to replicate vision. Patients wear augmented reality glasses embedded with a camera that captures their visual field. What the camera ‘sees’ is transmitted to the chip implanted in their eye in the form of infrared light. The chip converts the light into an electrical current, which stimulates the remaining healthy cells in the macula in a realistic way, enabling signals these cells send to be interpreted by the brain as vision.

An image processor, which the user must carry, lets patients zoom in and magnify the images they see, which appear in black and white.

With the help of the PRIMA device, 80% of the 32 patients who returned for a reassessment one year after the chip implantation had achieved clinically meaningful visual improvements. Patients did experience side effects, predominantly related to the surgical procedure: The study reported that 26 serious adverse events occurred in 19 of the patients, ranging from elevated blood pressure in the eye to an accumulation of blood around the retina. The majority of the adverse events resolved within two months of the implantation.”

From NBC News.