Billionaire tech guru, Elon Musk's brain-chip startup company, Neuralink said on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, its experimental implant aimed at restoring vision for even people who were born blind has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "breakthrough device" designation.
The FDA's breakthrough tag is given to certain medical devices that provide treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions so when the government gives such designation, it is aimed at speeding up development and review of devices currently under development.
The experimental device, known as Blindsight, "will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see," Musk said in a post on X.
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"The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see." Musk's statement reads.
Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time."
To set expectations correctly, the vision will be at first be low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.
Neuralink in a statement said it expects the Blindsight device to move into human trials.
Founded in 2016 by Musk and a group of engineers, Neuralink is building a brain chip interface that can be implanted within the skull, which it says could eventually help disabled patients to move, communicate again, and also restore vision.
Neuralink's device has a chip that processes and transmits neural signals that could be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone.
The startup is separately testing an implant designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, a prospect that could help people with spinal cord injuries.
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