Researchers Devise Computer Inside Eye to Restore Sight
Orlando, Florida (AP): 

Researchers have developed a computer chip designed to float on the thin, wet
tissue of the retina, where it will send visual signals to the brain.  

The computer, about the size of the date on a penny, will be powered by solar
cells that will generate electricity when struck by an invisible laser beam
coming from a pair of special eyeglasses in which the clear lenses have been
replaced by 2 tiny television cameras. If that sounds like something possible
only on 'Star Trek,' Dr. Joseph Rizzo, one of its developers, has a ready
answer.  He points to the success of the electronic cochlear implant, which
is now enabling many formerly deaf people to hear. 

The first 'eye on a chip' has just been completed at a cost of five hundred
thousand dollars, Rizzo said.  But mass production of the chips should bring
the cost down to as low as fifty dollars each, Rizzo said. Rizzo's chip has 2
layers:  a top layer of solar cells and a bottom layer of computer circuitry.
Protruding from the 2 layers is a tiny strip carrying electrodes that send
signals directly to the nerves of the retina. The chip will probably produce
only limited vision in a very narrow visual field, but that could be enough
to dramatically improve the lives of patients who cannot see at all, Rizzo
said. 

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SEEING-EYE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE NET
A scanning laser ophthalmoscope, or SLO, can be used by the visually-impaired
to read words on a computer screen.  The SLO is essentially a $100,000
miniature projection-TV system that is used as research tool for probing
inside the eye.  But people with very poor eyesight may one day be able to
use goggle-sized SLOs with lenses made from semiconductor lasers to access
the words and images on their computers.  The scientist at Schepens Eye
Research Institute in Boston who invented the SLO notes that commercial
production is not yet viable:  "If the video-game people would just grab
this, it would take off like a rocket."  (Business Week 3/27/95 p.182)