If you can believe your eyes and ears
From: EE Times - 02/13/2006 - page 22
By: Nicolas Mokhoff

Progress in the microminiaturization of prosthetic devices for the blind and
the hard of hearing was reported at the International Solid-State Circuits
Conference, as were advances in neural implants. 

  A Massachusetts team is working on a retinal implant in hopes of restoring
  vision to those suffering from age-related macular degeneration and
  retinitis pigmentosa.  

  Researchers from two German companies, design house sci-worx and medical
  electronics firm IIP Technologies, are working on an epiretinal prosthesis
  that restores basic vision through electrical nerve stimulation within the
  eyeballs of those blinded by retinal degeneration.  

  As for cochlear prostheses, researchers at the University of Michigan see a
  potential solution to hearing problems in electrode arrays that increase
  the number of stimulating sites in the ear, so that the arrays can more
  easily adapt to differing patterns of nerve survival.  

  A research team at Stanford University, meanwhile, proposes an integrated
  silicon implant technology that combines research on cortical
  electrophysiology, algorithms and circuit design to achieve high levels of
  prosthetic performance while minimizing power consumption.  

  Researchers at the University of Utah are developing a wireless, fully
  implantable neural recording system to facilitate research and
  neuroprosthetic applications.  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=179101950

Links:
Researchers report progress on retinal implant
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=179101429

IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference
http://www.isscc.org/isscc/