Retinal implant

A device that restores partial vision by electrically stimulating surviving cells in the retina or the brain's visual areas.

• In diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration, light-sensing cells die while the retinal neurons behind them survive.
• Science Corp's PRIMA is a 2 mm solar-cell chip under the retina, powered and fed images by near-infrared light projected from camera glasses.
• In a 2025 trial in advanced macular degeneration, most patients regained the ability to read letters and words.
• Resolution is low, hundreds of pixels, and implants that bypass the eye to stimulate the brain are still experimental.