There is a glimmer of hope for the blind to see again as Neuralink, an Elon Musk-owned brain chip company has designed a device to help restore vision for the blind.
The device has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The device, named Blindsight has received an approval designation known as “breakthrough device”. This means the device has been accepted as a medical device that could help treat and diagnose serious health conditions that are life-threatening.
Moreover, the approval paves the way for speeding up of the development of the device and its review processes.
Neuralink in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter announced on Tuesday that, “We have received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA for Blindsight. Join us in our quest to bring back sight to those who have lost it.”
The Elon Musk company’s device is a brain chip that can be implanted in the skull which could help people with disabilities move, communicate, and regain their vision. Reuters reports that the device works by processing signals from the brain and sending them to other devices like computers and phones.
“The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see. Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time,” Elon Musk said in an X post on Tuesday.
He added that “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.”
