Are We Becoming Cyborgs? The First Wireless Retinal Device Implant

Anybody else a Trekkie? Star Trek premiered in September 1966. That was when I was just starting the eighth grade.

The crew of the Enterprise had some really cool things. There were communicators, universal translators, and the holodeck. They also had the transporter beam. Beam me up, Scotty!

What are cyborgs?

While we still can’t “beam” people up, we do have cell phones, universal translators, and holodecks in the form of virtual reality. We even have cyborgs!

The Borg - a group of beings that were part machine and part flesh and blood - did not truly “make it big” until Jean Luc Picard became the captain of the Enterprise. They made their debut around 1989. Not sure what took them so long. We have had cyborgs a lot longer than that here!

Cyborgs in real life?

What am I talking about? The marriage of flesh and machine. We have had joint replacements for decades. We have pacemakers and neurostimulators. We have cochlear implants that allow the deaf to hear and pretty soon we will have artificial retinas so the blind can see. Let me tell you, the Borg have nothing on us!

First retinal device implant in the U.S.

Recently, on January 13, 2020 the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center Eye Center had implanted the first patient in the United States with a wireless retinal device.¹ BTW This is less than three miles from the offices of Health Union! Talk about history being made in our own backyard! Anyone want to run over there and get the lowdown on this?

How does the retinal implant work?

Anyway, advanced age-related macular degeneration patients are the target population for this device. This device, the Prima System by Pixium Vision, is a teeny, tiny wireless, photovoltaic chip. Photovoltaic means exactly what it sounds like. It turns light into electricity. The device is attached to the optic nerve and in the brain these signals become sight.

I am not quite sure where the “photo” part of this comes from. The chip itself is not a camera. In fact, the “wireless” part of the system refers to the connection between the camera on the special glasses and the chip. Do the glasses make you look like Geordi LaForge in Star Trek Next Generation? Will it pick up random signals? Dunno. Just the same, the possibilities for this device are intriguing.

Still in clinical trials

Once again, the caveats about this need to be emphasized. The Prima System is still in phase 1 clinical trials. If you have read the page I wrote on clinical trials, you know that it is only the safety and tolerability testing. They have been implanting the device in France for the past year, but even this was only five people. So far, so good in France, but these are still the early days and much still needs to be proven before the Prima System reaches the general public.

The device will take time

The second caveat is this: The Prima System is not something you buy and walk out of the showroom, ready to go. There is training so that your brain can correctly interpret the signals it is getting from the device. Time, effort and patience are required.

So, we are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Maybe when it comes to artificial, retinal implants that is not such a bad idea.