/ News
Bionic eye promises vision for the blind
Monash University is preparing to launch technology that should allow blind users to make out objects and other people.
World-leading technology that could help restore vision to a large number of Australia's 45,000 blind people is set to emerge from a Melbourne university.
The Monash Vision system, developed by a team of 60 at Monash University, allows blind users to make out objects and other people with the aid of a brain implant that connects wirelessly to a camera which can be housed in a pair of glasses or even on the end of the user's finger.
The camera captures and sends images via a digital processor to a chip implanted under the skull at the back of the head. This chip stimulates the visual cortex via electrodes, allowing the brain to interpret the images.
The technology will allow blind people to see objects as a series of dots or solid colours. Facial recognition software lets the user identify other people, while other bespoke software, such as technology allowing users to recognise and negotiate stairs, is compatible with the system.
Monash researchers expect to release a prototype, which will be tested before being trialled on a blind person, in the first half of next year. It's hoped that the trial, if successful, will lead to the widespread use of the technology within a decade.
Project director Prof Arthur Lowery told Guardian Australia the technology was a "major breakthrough" from previous sight-giving innovations.
"It's the most advanced system created as it allows people to recognise different objects and colours," he said. "It means people can go into a meeting and know who is there and how many of them there are. People can venture outside because they can see trees."
Lowery said the sight provided would be similar to an advanced type of radar and was suited to completely blind people.
"If you have some residual vision it's probably of less use to you," he said. "You wouldn't lose the vision you had but this is only presenting a few hundred pixels and most people with residual vision have more than that. We are aiming at people who are completely blind and have brains which are hardwired to understand what objects are, rather people who have never seen anything at all."
Monash Vision was rapidly established with the aid of an $8m government grant to create the "Cochlear for vision", referring to the famed Australian invention that has dominated the hearing aid market.
The challenge was set by then prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2020 gathering in 2008.
Another team, Bionic Vision Australia, was given $42m to work on a solution which focused on replacing defective retinas.
"We thought of a different approach, one that involved a cortical implant into the back of the head," said Lowery. "You don't need eyeballs for this. If you have optic nerve damage or glaucoma this can work as it bypasses the optical system. It gives hope to people who have had serious damage to their eyes."
The project team includes Mark Armstrong, an industrial designer who created the concept for the torch at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and was a leading designer for Cochlear.
"Mark has been a perfect fit for us because this concept is actually quite similar to Cochlear," said Lowery.
"But rather than a microphone, you have a camera at the front end. The camera could be anywhere – it could be at end of your finger, where you can scan things like your mind's eye, or you could have dark spectacles or a Bluetooth headset.
"The final users of this want something that doesn't stand out. The whole reason for assistive technology is to allow people to do many things that fully sighted people can … something that's not obtrusive."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/bionic-eye-vision-for-blind
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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