The chip, encased in titanium to withstand the tortures of the human body for 10 years, sticks to the outside of your eyeball. The eye's lens still seems to be used, but light strikes implanted electrodes that in turn cause the chip to fire image information directly into the optic nerve.

Users will still need to wear glasses, but not for the reasons you'd think. The glasses house a power source to transmit necessary energy to the sight chip wirelessly.

Researchers admit that the footage won't be a 1:1 replacement for normal vision, especially at first when trial participants will help refine MIT's algorithms. But the device should theoretically enable someone to navigate a room and even recognize faces, making social tasks quite a bit easier. [Wired via Newlaunches]

All three patients were blind in one eye. The researchers extracted stem cells from their working eyes, cultured them in contact lenses for 10 days, and gave them to the patients. Within 10 to 14 days of use, the stem cells began recolonizing and repairing the cornea.

Of the three patients, two were legally blind but can now read the big letters on an eye chart, while the third, who could previously read the top few rows of the chart, is now able to pass the vision test for a driver's license. The research team isn't getting over excited, still remaining unsure as to whether the correction will remain stable, but the fact that the three test patients have been enjoying restored sight for the last 18 months is definitely encouraging. The simplicity and low cost of the technique also means that it could be carried out in poorer countries.

This is incredible and potentially game changing. It's stuff like this that makes you realize that we live in the future, and it's awesome. [UNSW via The Australian via GizMag]

Chueh Lee claims that using their unusually acute sense of hearing, visually impaired individuals will be able to effectively target their photographic subject, and that placing the camera on their forehead will render the best results. It may look slightly hilarious, but bringing a previously inaccessible tools and hobbies to people who were previously denied them puts this design concept head and shoulders above most of the mockups we see floating around the tubes. Hopefully Mr. Lee can get a little backing from his pals at Samsung to see this one through. [Yanko]

There have also been limited human trials of the chip, with promising results. Currently the chips can only sense impulses of light rather than actual images, but that's the first step towards restoring sight to those people (and cats) currently living without that very important sense. –Adam Frucci

'Bionic' Cat Eyes May Help Humans [via Doc in the Machine]

Once the user takes a picture of the object in question, character recognition and speech synthesis software work in tandem to decode the mysteries of the written word for the less fortunate. The K-NFB can hold thousands of such recorded pages, which can be expanded with the use of SC cards.

Compared to Kurzweil's first such invention, which cost nearly $64,000 back in 1981, the K-NFB costs only around $3,495, surely a steal for someone looking to "see" again. It should be available on July 1. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [Kurzweil - National Federation of the Blind via Digital Trends and BBC News]

The tiny 1.5mm chip flexes in response to low intensity light, stimulating nerves that send visual info on to the brain. The actuator has now been built by engineer Laxman Saggere of the University of Illinois at Chicago; no word on when we'll see this technology implemented in the real world.

Solar-powered implant could restore vision [NewScientist, via treehugger]