Bionic eye gives sight to blind

A "bionic eye" may one day help restore sight to blind people following the amazing results from the first clinical trial in the US of an artificial retina.

Scientists behind the project said yesterday that they have been astonished by the success of the trial of the artificial eye - a tiny video camera embedded in a pair of spectacles that sends images to electrodes implanted into the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye.

"We expected that all our first six subjects would be able to see is just light and dark. But they can differentiate between a cup, a plate and a knife. It's amazing how much the brain is able to fill in the missing information," Mark Humayun, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Southern California told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.