Scientists at the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center (SVEC), a NASA-sponsored
Commercial Space Center at the University of Houston, are experimenting with
thin, photosensitive ceramic films that respond to light in much the same way
as the rods and cones in the back of the human eye. Arrays of these films
could be implanted in human eyes to restore lost vision. 

Artificial retinas constructed at the SVEC consist of 100,000 tiny ceramic
detectors, each one-twentieth the size of a human hair. The arrays are
attached to a polymer film one millimeter by one millimeter in size. A couple
of weeks after insertion into the eye, the film simply dissolves, leaving the
array behind. 

The first human trials of the detectors will begin this year. Visit:
http://www.svec.uh.edu/oxide.html