Innovation in Engineering:

Artificial Eye: past, present and future.

By Felipe A. C. Gomes

Module: Industrial Appreciation (ENG2046)Tutor: Mr. Daniel BaileyUniversity of Northampton

Department of Engineering & TechnologySchool of Science & Technology

18th January 2015

SUMMARY1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................1

2 State of the art eyes.........................................................................................................................3

3 Adoption rate.....................................................................................................................................4

4 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................6

5 References.........................................................................................................................................6

1 INTRODUCTION

The oldest known ocular prosthesis dates back to 2900-2800 BC, it was found in a

woman who lived in the region of Iran (Sajjad, 2012). The eye was made with a bitumen

paste, which is derived from petroleum (figure 1).

Figure 1. Ancient woman with an artificial eye

For a long time the major use of that kind of replacement was purely esthetical.

Rudimentary techniques followed mankind through ages, the called ‘’glass eyes’’ started

in the 20th century to get a new approach. The incorporation of electronic components

and the advent of the computer age leads us to a new kind of artificial eyes that are

more than an esthetical accessory.

Nowadays, there are an increasing number of technologic companies and

education institutes researching for new materials and new devices to give back the

vision for people who lost or got some kind of damage. The new visual prosthesis, or

bionic eyes, has to be made of a biocompatible material to avoid rejection or later

infection (Shin et al, 2007). The electronic components are put together in order to

capture the light and process the signal delivering it to the brain, who will form images.

The digital camera attached in a pair of glasses captures the images in real time

sending it to an external microchip (a handheld unit) who converts the signal into

electrical pulses, then, a radio transmitter transmits the pulses to a receiver implanted

under the skin sending the signal to a retinal implant who leads the signal to the brain.

There are variations and a lot of companies have patents over different types of

electronic devices used as artificial eyes (Dorn et al, 2013). Besides of the eyes with

electronic components, there are some researches groups working with biological

tissue, and they rely on stem cells to repair the damages and restore the vision. The

work with stem cells is very recent and despite of all controversy in the use of

embryonic stem cells, there is an excellent alternative that is already being used: the

use of adult stem cells from the patient itself which avoids rejection (Tropepe et al,

2000).

There are in the whole world researches groups studying artificial organs made

by organic tissue and the use of these living transplants instead of using electronic

components. The use of the cells are starting to lead to a repair or even a replacement

of the damaged part of the eye. A complete eye, fully grown in the laboratory is not a

reality today, but the advances in that area are remarkable and in the future this can be

the cure for blindness.

The need of good technics and development in this field is supported by the

amount of the people who are not capable of seeing. The following graph from

Vision2020 shows the percent of blind people in the world (2002), note there is a lack in

recent information, mostly of the poor countries in the world who don’t have an updated

statistic control:

Graph 1- Blindness around the world, Vision2020 (2002).

2 STATE OF THE ART EYES

The innovation in this field, is to develop a hybrid between organic tissue and

mechanical components in order to not only restoring vision, but giving extra features.

Today, you can grow for example a blood vessel in the lab and transplant it into a human

body without having rejection as the cells used to grow the vessel are self-donated by the

patient (Kakisis et al, 2005). Scientists discovered that using certain chemical environments

along with properly physical conditions, you can manipulate the stem cells to differentiate

themselves in an adult tissue: muscular tissue, bone tissue, skin tissue, etc. (Mimeault and

Batra, 2008). Using this technics, the innovation is to create each part of the eye and seek

for a nanotechnology able to integrate an electronic device with the cells apt to process

more data and providing to the brain new information as: distance of the objects, more

range of colors, and a zoom along with an integration with an external computer. Today we

have electronics like Google Glass which takes pictures and provides a screen for the user

with the interface similar to a computer. The combination of this type of existing technology

to an organic tissue (the eye), will lead us to another age of transplants. When the

technology overcome the naturals eyes, the people will start to think about replacing a

healthy organ in order to get a better one with all those features. Of course this is not an

immediate situation. Today we have a lot of medical procedures involving eyes problems.

For those who doesn’t have genetic problems, the vision will get poor as we age, it is the

normal process of getting old (Hossain, 2005). Some problems can be solved using a

simple pair of glass, or lenses. The advent of the new artificial eyes will help those who

don’t have vision, or even have lost part of the vision.

To grow an organ, the scientists need to have what they call: scaffolds. The scaffold is a

biomaterial imitating some part of the body and it will be used to support cells to grow

(Sachlos and Czernuszka, 2003). When you add stem cells in that scaffold and provide

similar chemical conditions of the adult cell you want do grow, certain types of adult stem

cell start to differentiate and become the human tissue you want, like a skin, a bone,

muscular tissue, or even neural tissue (Kakisis et al, 2005). The main goal is to differentiate

stem cell in cells found in the eyes like cone cells (responsible for color vision and color

sensitivity) or rod cells (darker colors, peripheral vision) and others like the white part of the

eye (the sclera), which can be made with collagen and elastic fiber. The second part, in the

future, is to integrate this into a nano-computer to substitute the cornea and the lens of the

eye. The final part is the integration with the brain, providing a new range of images.

Instead of having only a mechanical device inside you, or only repairing to restore the

normal function, people will have better eyes, the integration of organic tissue and

mechanic components.

There are a few considerations. That type of technology is clearly ahead us. We need a

lot more researches in this field and a team work involving doctors, engineers and

biologists. The biggest problem with that type of technology is the price for the consumer.

Today, a bionic eye (an external one, the Argus 2) cost around £75,000 (NHS, 2012) and

the complexity of this innovation will lead to a high end product more expensive than the

bionic eyes we have today. To lower the cost, is a question of supply and demand. As more

companies will developing new technologies, the competitive market will decreasing the

price and looking for new and cheapest materials. The other issue is the compatibility, as

the organic part is supposed to have fully biocompatibility (the cells are derivated from the

patient) the electronic part needs to be safe and tested to avoid rejection and deterioration

with time (Shin et al, 2004).

3 ADOPTION RATE

The biggest problem that this technology will face is the cost. Even with government help

(in some countries that have a good public health service), most people don’t have access to

high end products, unless they have money and can afford for the new types of treatment and

latest kinds of prosthesis. The big question is how to lower the cost to make more people able to

buy these artificial organs. There is five adoption factors adopted by Everett Rogers that people

uses to adopt or refect an innovation:

1. Relative Advantage. In this case, the advance of technology will overcome the previous

generation and will be better in every aspect. They will get a high end product to restore

one of the most important senses.

2. Compatibility. As the artificial organ will be transplanted, the only problem is during the

surgery and the recovery time after that. The device will be made to be like an ordinary

eye, with more benefits. It will be the act of seeing, it is automatic.

3. Complexity or Simplicity. As said before, it will depends on the features that the eye will

bring. Simple eye with only the function of seeing will be just like a normal eye and will

only provide vision. In the future, with the integration with nanochips, lenses and

processors will be a different approach in the interface and how this will be operated.

Like augmented reality glasses as Oculus Rift, you can use your hands to touch the

‘’invisible’’ menu that is only appearing for who is wearing the glasses. Other thing that

we must take into consideration is the generation of people who is going to use this kind

of technology. The today kids start to use smartphones, tablets and laptops sooner than

the previous generations. They are born in the digital era. They will learn how to use

new equipment easier then we.

4. Trialability: This is a tricky question in this field. People will not be able to do a test

surgery to see how the implant will be, and decide if they like or not. The high cost and

the complexity of the surgery (You have in most of cases implant chips in the brain) do

not allow to test. But, these types of product, before going available to public, they pass

through several tests and medical tests with animals and humans subjects to guarantee

the quality and the safety of the product. There is a government institution in most

countries who controls and allow or deny the selling of medical devices based on

previous tests and security matters.

5. Observability. The bionic eye is made to look just like a real eye. So it will have low

observability from the point of view of strangers. This kind of technology attracts the

media curiosity and will be widespread and will face a challenge of this century:

personalization. People like to have unique things, things that are made exclusively for

them and no one else. A new kind of esthetical prosthesis can rise, one with unique

esthetical features, like a tattoo, to be observable for everyone. And everyone will see

that you have an expensive bionic eye (figure 2).

Figure 2- Conceptual Art

4 CONCLUSION

The bionic eyes made today are far away to restore the perfect vision or to give

an improved one. There is a need of further researches with multidisciplinary teams to

lead us to a new kind of eye transplant.

The proposal of having a nano-computer inside your eyes sounds science-fiction

today. But the technology is advancing fast, the computers are getting better and the

medicine advances are starting to solve old problems with modern techniques.

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