Second sight
How people learn to see the world with bionic eyes
Doctors who conducted the second in They explained to RIA Novosti how the blind patient will learn to see the world anew, and her husband Yuri told how his wife Antonina became a participant in this unique program and who she wants to see first after the operation.
Last Monday, the second operation to install one of the most "advanced" bionic vision systems in the eye of a 56-year-old woman from Chelyabinsk, who agreed to the experiment, took place at the Scientific and Clinical Center of Otorhinolaryngology of the FMBA of Russia. The operation was successful, and in two weeks she will be able to see the world again for the first time in many years.
One of the most modern and promising cybernetic vision systems developed by scientists in recent years, the Argus II retinal prosthetic system, was used for implantation. It was developed within the walls of the Second Sight company in the middle of the last decade and was first presented to the public in 2009, when a blind British volunteer partially regained his sight thanks to it.
Argus II consists of three components – a cyberset of six dozen electrodes, special glasses with an integrated camera and a special pocket computer that converts signals into a form understandable to the brain. In its current form, it allows blind people to see white and black lines, as well as distinguish between large letters and words. One such system, at the current rates of Second Sight, costs about 150 thousand US dollars.
The first owner of it in Grigory Ulyanov, a 59–year-old deafblind patient from Chelyabinsk, became Russia. He underwent a similar operation at the end of June this year and has already learned how to use new eyes, having undergone rehabilitation under the Second Sight program with the participation of its Russian partners and specialists.
The All-seeing eye of a giant
According to Andrey Demchinsky, head of medical projects at the Sensor-Tech Laboratory, the initial rehabilitation procedure takes about three months and consists of several stages.
On the first day after the restoration of the eye, engineers and doctors turn on the Argus II and perform its initial setup. They determine the sensitivity of nerve cells under each platinum electrode and use this data to set up a program that converts the image from the camera into signals understandable to the brain.
Then the patient undergoes a series of tests: he looks at the touch screen, where a square is depicted and the position of which the user of the cyber eye must determine by clicking on it with his finger, this allows scientists to assess the performance of the system and how well the patient determines the localization of objects, as well as how well he coordinates his actions.
After that, specialists display a test with a set of moving strips on the screen, Grigory and other users of the "cybersetchat" should see their direction, and then point at them with a finger movement across the screen in the appropriate direction. Similarly, visual acuity and some other features necessary for the initial setup of bionic eyes are checked. "At the next stage of rehabilitation, in about a month, exercises with a magnetic board and figures begin. Scanning them with a camera, patients try to understand what they see. We showed Grigory letters about 15 by 15 centimeters in size, which he was able to read," says Demchinsky.
At the last stage of rehabilitation, patients learn to move independently through closed rooms and the street, identifying the largest and most significant elements – curbs, doorways, windows and other objects. At this point, classes and training do not stop, and patients continue to train in this way at home.
In general, as Demchinsky noted, Grigory has successfully passed rehabilitation and at the moment his retina is in excellent condition. In the future, it may have to be reconfigured due to changes in the structure of contacts between the electrodes and the retina or as a result of natural changes on the part of the eye, but so far there is no need for this.
"Second Sight is currently developing the third version of bionic eyes, which includes 250 electrodes, and new software for Argus II, which can significantly improve the image quality using a kind of virtual electrodes. We plan to introduce this part of this technology," the scientist explained.
Ekaterina Ermolenko, head of the Public Relations department at the Alisher Usmanov Foundation, added that the charity organization plans to support such operations in the future. Now the foundation's specialists are working on creating a special Internet portal where people suffering from blindness and vision problems will be able to get all the relevant information about possible forms of leisure for visually impaired people and about the latest news related to new technical systems like Argus II.
According to Demchinsky, Russian scientists and their foreign colleagues have considered the possibility of creating special road signs for people with similar bionic eyes that would help them navigate in space, but so far it is difficult to implement such ideas due to the lack of a clear understanding of how many such signs will be needed and where they should be installed.
"A gift for the disabled day"
According to Yuri Petrovich, Antonina's husband, the couple learned about their participation in the operation only recently, about three weeks before it was carried out, and were surprised that the doctors and its organizers chose them, because they had already tried twice to get into this program, but unsuccessfully.
"We took part in the project from the very beginning, from that phase when the organizers recruited volunteers who were ready to take such a step. We passed all the examinations and tests together with Grigory Ulyanov, our countryman and a good friend from Chelyabinsk, however, as when sending the first man into space, the doctors selected only one candidate, and Grisha became him," says Yuri.
Doctors, as Antonina's husband noted, advised her not to despair and to perform an operation to replace the lens so that they could better assess the condition of her fundus and those bundles of nerve cells to which Argus II is connected.
"We have never lost hope – today science has gone so far that almost all deaf and hard of hearing people, including my wife, Antonina Apollosovna, have the opportunity to hear the world with powerful hearing aids. What prevents us from achieving the same success with eye replacement? We were willing to take risks and were well aware of all the limitations of the technology. In any case, you either don't see anything, or you have at least some chance to regain a small part of your vision," Antonina's husband continues.
As Yuri noted, the very fact that this operation was performed on the International Day of the disabled is a great gift for Antonina and himself. In addition, he is confident that the efforts of Russian scientists and their partners from the charitable foundations "So-unity" and "Art, Science and Sport" will allow scientists to make bionic eyes as accessible and high-quality as cybernetic ear implants.
"Antonina lost her sight more than 10 years ago and she desperately wants to see her son again, and for the first time to look at her daughter-in-law, four-year-old granddaughter and ten-year-old, who loves her very much and constantly asks to spend the night with us. I have diabetes myself, and she would really like to help me and learn how to take care of herself. And of course, she wants to help scientists move forward in creating a full–fledged eye replacement," the Chelyabinsk resident emphasizes.
Despite the loss of vision and hearing problems, Antonina, as her husband notes, is actively involved in social and everyday life – she likes to bake pies and pizza, knit, cook, but wants to try and much more.
"She dreams of going to the store on her own, skiing, cycling, playing checkers and hide–and-seek with her granddaughters - Antonina loves sports and even participated in competitions before. We hope that the operation will allow her to return to the life she left and expand her world, which has shrunk today to a phone handset," concludes Yuri.
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