And the blind shall see

Scientists in Germany have developed a retina implant to restore vision to the blind. Blind patients (mostly suffering from retinitis pigmentosa) were able to see light and dark areas and discern basic shapes only a week after their surgeries. One man was even able to see the difference between objects, and read large letters.

Aaron Saenz writes that retinal implants could restore limited visual sensitivity to thousands or millions around the world, helping them maintain the lives they have built up so carefully.

The device is surgically placed under the retina. Light that enters the eye stimulates the photodiodes which send electric currents through the underlying neurons.

An implant in the retina (left) replaces damaged 
retinal light receptors with a photodiode array (right).

Here's the amazing thing.

Implanted patients also reported a sensitivity to infrared light. The retina implant could only provide very basic vision, but it did so in an extended spectrum. Cybernetic implants like these may not only be able to restore sight to the blind, they could let them see things that no normal person has ever seen before with their own eyes.

Infrared imaging is used extensively for military and civilian purposes.

Military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing and tracking. Non-military uses include thermal efficiency analysis, remote temperature sensing, short-ranged wireless communication, spectroscopy, and weather forecasting.

Here's a picture showing how it works. The camera illuminates the scene at infrared wavelengths invisible to the human eye. Despite a dark back-lit scene, active-infrared night vision delivers identifying details, as seen on the display monitor.

Remember those x-ray glasses you wanted so badly when you were a kid?