[Tanada]

Apparently KaiserJeep is getting his wish and people are lining up for the next step in the transformation into Borg existence. Just $3,000/eye for 20:10 vision across the entire dynamic range and the possibility of visual data being directly projected onto your retina for total virtual reality immersion.

Bionic Lens Update 2017 with Dr.Webb from Ocumetics Technology

Last March, I provided readers with an inside view of this revolutionary intra-ocular lens under development. The Bionic Lens has continued to garner international interest and left many anxiously requesting further information. Recently, its founder, Dr. Garth Webb of Ocumetics Technology, was kind enough to spend some time with me to provide an update, having just reached another milestone amongst a multitude of engineering design improvements. He equates transitioning the lens to the mass-production process in this manner, ‘it’s like designing the first functional model T car and withholding introduction until you have a 2017 Ferrari’.

He reports that over the last year, animal study results have now firmly established the ability of this lens to achieve superior vision in normally-sighted eyes, as he had first projected. Elaborating further, Dr. Webb reveals that the Bionic Lens is designed so that the front (or anterior) portion of the lens serves as a ‘docking station’ that can be precisely loaded with micro-optics and customized for each patient’s eye. This will allow for the very finest of refinements to be instituted at any time without any sacrifice to the health of the eye. It is the ability to ‘fine tune’ a patient’s vision post-operatively that is just one of the unique advantages of this lens design.

Beyond optics for precise vision, the docking station of the Bionic Lens is also being developed to allow for the installation of communication technology and the potential for physiological therapy. Regarding its technological potential, a projection system installed in the docking station would allow a stabilized image to be projected onto the retina. This concept, Dr. Webb confidently states, ‘will take virtual reality to its completion.’

Dr. Webb anticipates that human studies will begin in 4 months’ time with initial clinical trials at accredited research facilities throughout Canada, US, and Europe. These trials will involve patients with cataracts who otherwise have ‘healthy’ eyes.

After that, his team is optimistic that in approximately one year, the Bionic Lens will be brought forth to the public under use as an ‘investigational device’ by qualified surgeons. Dr. Webb envisions a future where the Bionic Lens and other advanced technologies will be available at ‘Centres for Excellence’, places developed by other globally-minded individuals. It is truly an exciting time to be a part of …the future of vision.

In my upcoming part 2 blog of the Bionic Lens Update, I will answer specific questions received from my readers over the last year regarding anticipated costs, prescription issues as well as complicated cases that may or may not be eligible for this procedure.

http://www.eyedesignoptometry.com/bioni ... date-2017/

[Ibon]

I sold instruments in ophthalmology for 15 years in Latin America before retreating to the forests here in Panama and cataract surgery and inter ocular lenses implants was one of the key areas I was involved in. Also being an avid bird watcher I remember already 15 years ago I asked a few ophthalmologists if they could actually make inter-ocular lenses that were better than 20/20 vision. Specifically I was making reference to birds of prey whose visual acuity is far superior to humans. Evolution has honed the lens and resolution of the eyes of raptors so that they far out perform human vision and I was always told by ophthalmologists that even though they could change the resolution of the lens or even the magnification of an inter ocular lens implant to improve on 20/20 vision it would be a problem for patients whose neural pathways were already hard wired and accustomed to a life time of standard 20/20 vision.

What I am understanding from reading the link is that this new lens has a greater dynamic range from infinity to 1 inch, that would be an improvement over the past. I couldn't really get any specifics on this claim of 3 times better vision than 20/20.

[KaiserJeep]

Whatever the quality of the lens, there is a limit to human vision dictated by the number of receptor cells in the human retina. Apple made a lot of press off of this phenomenon a few years ago. Basically a human has a field of view that is about 160 degrees wide, assuming you have two healthy eyes. An electronic display that exceeds the density of retina cells with the number of pixels is a so-called "retina display". Humans cannot distinguish more than one value of brightness and color per cell in the retina, where the lens projects the image of the digital display or the real world.

The common HDTV displays today are 1080p, aka 1920X1080 pixels. Sit any further back than 1.5X the display size (i.e. the diagonal screen dimension) and normal human 20/20 vision cannot distinguish any more detail than the display provides.

My main TV is a UHD display, aka "4K", aka 3840X2160 pixels. You CAN see the difference between 1080p and UHD programming, but only by sitting closer than 1.5X the screen diagonal size, and only when I am wearing my current prescription glasses. It's great for streaming UHD programming, but I don't have a computer fast enough to drive the UHD display at a decent frame rate for gaming or flight simulation.

I'm awaiting the news of this adaptive optics package with enthusiasm. We ARE talking about an implant that replaces the existing lens, iris, and focussing musculature, correct?

[Ibon]

I'm awaiting the news of this adaptive optics package with enthusiasm. We ARE talking about an implant that replaces the existing lens, iris, and focussing musculature, correct?

Only replaces existing lens not iris or muscles that control the focus of the lens. Has has a more dynamic range than existing standard device. Also refers to a docking station in this lens that will allow communication technology to better project stable image on to the retina. That's the real novel part. Not much specifics on this.

[Subjectivist]

Only replaces existing lens not iris or muscles that control the focus of the lens. Has has a more dynamic range than existing standard device. Also refers to a docking station in this lens that will allow communication technology to better project stable image on to the retina. That's the real novel part. Not much specifics on this.

What is it that gives people with better than 20:20 natural vision their superior eyesight?. Is it the way the receptors on the retina are arrayed, or the type of receptors or what? My dad was a pilot and above average eyesight runs in my family so I have always wondered what makes our eyes different from average?

[Newfie]

I think the hard part is readjusting to a different sight pattern. I don't know how hard that would be. IIRC tests were done where people were fitted with glasses that rotates the world to upside down. After a while they adapted. But in other studies doctors were able to restore vision to some people who had it and lost it and to others who never had it. The first group responded well but the second group did not. I believe the majority ended up to be blind once again rather than have visual stimulation their brain could no decide.

[Ibon]

Only replaces existing lens not iris or muscles that control the focus of the lens. Has has a more dynamic range than existing standard device. Also refers to a docking station in this lens that will allow communication technology to better project stable image on to the retina. That's the real novel part. Not much specifics on this.

What is it that gives people with better than 20:20 natural vision their superior eyesight?. Is it the way the receptors on the retina are arrayed, or the type of receptors or what? My dad was a pilot and above average eyesight runs in my family so I have always wondered what makes our eyes different from average?

The resolving power of an eye depends both on the optics, large eyes with large appertures suffers less from diffraction and can have larger retinal images due to a long focal length, and on the density of receptor spacing. The retina has a large number of receptors per square millimeter, which determines the degree of visual acuity. The more receptors an animal has, the higher its ability to distinguish individual objects at a distance, especially when, as in raptors, each receptor is typically attached to a single ganglion.[1] Many raptors have foveas with far more rods and cones than the human fovea (65,000/mm2 in American kestrel, 38,000 in humans) and this provides these birds with spectacular long distance vision.[citation needed] It is proposed that the shape of the deep central fovea of raptors can create a telephoto optical system,[49] increasing the size of the retinal image in the fovea and thereby increasing the spatial resolution. Behavioural studies show that some large eyed raptors (Wedge-tailed eagle, Old world vultures) and have ca 2 times higher spatial resolution than humans, but many medium and small sized raptors have comparable or lower spatial resolution

The quality of the optics (lens), the number (density) of receptors (retina) and the size of the receptor area. Birds for example have more tubular eyes that increases the surface area of the retina thus increases the surface of the receptor area. The lens of birds have greater resolving power, particularly raptors.

This new technology is only restricted with what they can do to the inter ocular lens design. This is the anterior section of the eye. Not the retina where the receptors are (posterior section) . Your natural lens would be removed and replaced with this new fangled inter ocular lens. The optical mechanical part as I understand has a greater dynamic range when controlled by the muscles that focus the lens. This part is just straight forward optical mechanics. The additional info on the article about communication technology etc and ability to focus on the retina or to add anti-vibration ability, that is all pretty new technology stuff that I don't know anything about and wasn't around when I was involved in this. I would guess this is still years away though.

Evolution gave a raptor incredible resolving power honed for millennium as they focused on their tiny mammalian and avian prey from great distances while soaring. The whole design of the retina (posterior) and lens (anterior) of the eye and the size of the eye per body mass is all determining this great visual acuity.

This new gizmo on the article cannot touch what evolution has mastered in raptors so all of you who pray to the techno gods to greatly improve your vision don't cum in your pants too soon.

[Ibon]

I think the hard part is readjusting to a different sight pattern. I don't know how hard that would be. IIRC tests were done where people were fitted with glasses that rotates the world to upside down. After a while they adapted. But in other studies doctors were able to restore vision to some people who had it and lost it and to others who never had it. The first group responded well but the second group did not. I believe the majority ended up to be blind once again rather than have visual stimulation their brain could no decide.

Yes that was what I was told years ago, changing the resolution of the lens or magnification in a 60 year old after their neural pathways habituated to standard 20/20 would present a challenge.

You optically inclined foilks may know this but the image that passes through your lens and projected onto your retina is actually an inverted image. An upside down image of the world. It is your neurons and brain that flip it right side up so that you see the world correctly oriented. The design of your eye creates an inverted image, your brain flips it back around correctly. Pretty cool actually.

[SeaGypsy]

My mother had well above 20/20 vision when she was young. In her 30s she started wearing glasses as she found her vision wasn't as perfect as she was accustomed to. Now in her 70s she has to get a new prescription done every 2 years & can't read without glasses. Mine was never better than just good enough to pass the drive test. I tried glasses in my teens, within weeks I couldn't see properly without them. Since then i definitely don't want glasses as i don't want to be dependent on them. I'm 50 this year & my vision is exactly the same as when i was 18.

[Ibon]

My mother had well above 20/20 vision when she was young. In her 30s she started wearing glasses as she found her vision wasn't as perfect as she was accustomed to. Now in her 70s she has to get a new prescription done every 2 years & can't read without glasses. Mine was never better than just good enough to pass the drive test. I tried glasses in my teens, within weeks I couldn't see properly without them. Since then i definitely don't want glasses as i don't want to be dependent on them. I'm 50 this year & my vision is exactly the same as when i was 18.

Here are a few facts that help orientate one to the issue of vision and aging. As you age the elasticity of the lens in the anterior part of your eye decreases, in other words your muscles that are involuntary cannot bend the lens enough to focus close. This is called presbyopia. Solution is reading glasses. You can have 20/20 vision and still need reading glasses because of this loss of elasticity of your lens. Almost everyone suffers this problem to a degree. It is not corrected by any current surgical procedure. Reading glasses are still the best solution.

Your lens can also get cloudy as you age. Cloudy lens is what a cataract is. Especially for folks exposed to large amounts of UV light in their lifetimes, marine sailors, folks working out doors, entomologists staring too long into their mercury vapor lights while collecting insects .... In rare cases it can be congenital. A simple surgery, removing the old lens and putting in an inter ocular lens can return a person to pretty much normal vision. Cataract surgery is safe and many older people have this procedure. This article that started this thread is basically a new version of an inter ocular lens attempting to integrate technology into what is a basic optical mechanical device.

Near sighted and far sightedness, myopia or hyperopia is simply the focal point of your lens shifts either in front or behind your retina with aging. This can be corrected with glasses, contacts or Lasik surgery. The surgery is simple and also just an optical mechanical procedure using a laser to change the curvature of your lens so that the focal point returns exactly on the retina.

I had Lasik Surgery 15 years ago and have had 20/20 vision ever since and do not need eyeglasses. I had it done almost free in return to helping an opthalmologist get a nice discount on a surgical operating microscope. The procedure is simple. Imagine your eye like a grape. Take a knife and peel back a flap of the outer skin so that you see expose the flesh below. In the case of your eye when you cut a flap in your cornea you expose your lens. A laser then shaves the lens precisely so that the focal point returns to the retina and then the flap is closed back over the eye and you heal within a couple days.

Other vision problems, glaucoma when the pressure in the fluid in your eye builds up because the natural drainage is blocked. Easily treated again by just a simple mechanical procedure of opening up the ducts to return normal flow to release pressure.

From here we move to the more problematic eye problems which are in the posterior part of the eye, the retina. Macular degeneration, detached retinas, more difficult to cure and also mostly age related.

Most of the problems and cures for vision are actually quite eloquent in that you don't need drugs and the procedures are mostly optical mechanical without fancy technology.

Maybe its the luddite in me but integrating communication technology or anything digital in your organic pathway of vision is for me perverted.

[Ibon]

One correction. The new device in the article did mention the greater dynamic range of the inter ocular lens from infinity down to 1 inch. This is nothing digital and just an improvement of the optical mechanical design. This actually very well may correct presbyopia and the need for reading glasses. I mentioned in my last post that there was no current procedure to correct this. This new device may do this but it is not the techno part really being emphasized in the article. That is actually a real improvement that caught my eye.....no pun intended.

[Newfie]

Ibon,
Just reading about it gives me the willies.

I'm 66!and have 20/20 at a distance. I buy reading glasses by the 3 pack and they work fine. My Wife is having some issues with her eyes I can't fathom.

Supposed she has 20/30 in one eye and 20/60 in the other, uncorrected.

My understanding is that, at a distance, using glasses, she should be able to see nearly as good as I.

However, I can read a number on a bouy unaided before she can using 7X binoculars. That doesn't sound right to me. Any idea what I'm missing?

[Ibon]

Ibon,

However, I can read a number on a bouy unaided before she can using 7X binoculars. That doesn't sound right to me. Any idea what I'm missing?

Without an eye exam it is hard to know but a few points. She is near sighted which is the problem with distance vision. 7x binoculars are the mariners perfect binoculars so congrats on that. Using them correctly will allow a person with near or far sightedness to correct this with the diopter settings on your binocular. That is the setting that corrects for the difference in vision between the two eyes. Many people do not properly know how to set the diopter correctly. So first to compare your natural sight with hers using binoculars we have make sure she has adjusted correctly the diopter settings. Someone like a bird watcher can do this automatically, someone new to this needs to do step by step focusing each eye separately. The 7x is the right binocular on a boat because you need low magnification for compensating the swaying and rocking on a boat. Higher magnification like 8 or 10x requires more stable setting and a steadier hand. You with your naked eyes compete with your wife using binoculars because it is not only magnification that counts but also resolution. So magnification is not everything. If your wife suffers from mild cataracts her resolution is reduced and you might out perform her when she uses binoculars for this reason.

What brand of binoculars do you have? I was Leica Microsystem's regional director for Latin America for almost 15 years before starting my own business. Leica optics are world famous whether the optics are in a camera, binocular, operating microscope or spotting scope. Before I left the company I used commissions to get a life time supply of binoculars and spotting scopes that we use here at our resort and loan out to our guests. This is the first time in 10 years at PO.com that I am revealing a bit of my past identity.....

[Newfie]

I have 4 binos on the boat. A very good set for myself (Steiner rebranded as WestMarine). Then 2 sets of good binos from West Marine. And a cheap set I got a long time ago and are here "just because."

I've marked one West Marine set for her and have walked her through the adjustment procedure. I've no clue how well she did it. I can't do it for her.

I nagged her until she got a second eye exam. Apparently she has some scratches on one lens and the beginnings of cataracts. They suggested she ignore the cataracts, not bad enough, but to get the lens "planned" to take out the scratches. No clue how she scratched her lens or when. She doesn't want to do that procedure and I've no inclination to press her.

[ROCKMAN]

My semi interesting eye story. About 4 years ago (age 62) went for an eye exam for new glasses. Been years since last exam. And with all the high tech equipment the doc first gave me a wooden spoon to cover each eye. Turns out I was essentially blind in my right eye. read the E on the chart? I couldn't see the f*cking wall. LOL. With my glasses ON I was 2,300/100 in my right eye and had no clue. Apparently it werwernt bad so slowly my brain stopped processing data from that eye. Freaking dangerous: had I gotten something if my left eye while driving I would not have been able to see my hood let alone the road.

Got new glasses and was good. Except my brain was rather confused for day since it was now processing new input. OK...for 4 or 5 months. Then right started going bad. New glasses...same deterioration. But last year cataracts got bad enough for insurance to cover it. Doctor said for an extra $15k could put corrective lens in but I would probably still need to wear glasses. So went with the free surgery.

And, son of a bitch, eyes are now 20/40 WITHOUT GLASSES. First time in my life I driving without glasses. Did get some cheap ones because the fine print on the cable TV menu was a little blurry. The other amazing change: colors are much more brilliant now. Apparently my natural lens were filtering out some wavelengths.

Just crazy: while my MS is slowing destroying functionality my eyesight has gotten better. So now I have a much clearer picture of crumbling body. LOL.