神奇 新技术可让盲人重见光明

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If you know anyone who is deaf, then you know the cochlear implant has offered hope and help for some people. This next story may be the equivalence where restoring sight is concerned. While the science is very different and very tricky, the promise here is enormous. Nothing short of restoring sight for those who don’t have it. We get our report tonight from our chief science correspondent Robert Bazell.
"We're, basically, you’re gonna see squares on this screen."
"OK."
Catherine Blake has been totally blind but can see again.
"Correct." (computer voice)
Not a lot.
"I was able to sort my clothes."
But enough to make a big difference in her life.
"That would be right.""I was able to actually point the moon out in the sky. These are the glasses that make everything work."
Blake's vision comes from a tiny TV camera mounted on her sunglasses. They send images to electrodes placed on the back of her eyes.
"Here it is."
For 20 years, Dr. Mark Quimi and his team at the University of Southern California have been working towards the amazing goal of restoring the vision to the blind. The challenges are immense.
"The key of this is not only the hardware but the software. How do you take an image from the camera and convert it into this neural code, of this Morse code of the eye and then stimulate the nerve cells in the retina.
But recently the team has achieved great improvement into the device, going from 16 electrodes to 60, enabling better sight. With this demonstration, Dr. Quimi shows me what the patients see. First is the total blindness.
"Could you tell which of my hand is moving?"
With the 16-electrode device, the patient sees nothing but rows of light. But they change with movement, allowing the patient to avoid hitting large objects. Next with the latest device, I make out Dr. Quimi.
"I can see tie and a face on top of it."
"Correct."
And then parts of an eye chart.
"F, maybe, yeah. Two Fs? Yeah, two Fs? T. O."
"That’s progress. The idea is that more electrodes and more sophisticated device, you can actually begin to read large letters."
Soon the glasses will go.
"The typical prototype…"
Armand Tanguay, an electrical engineer is developing cameras to be implanted directly in the eye lens.
"We think it’s a pivotal future generation step to be able to supply the best possible vision to the blind."
A system many scientists believe will restore better and better sight to millions like Catherine Blake.
"OK."
Robert Bazell, NBC News, Los Angeles
总结：
retina：视网膜