A breakthrough bionic eye might one day give us night vision

Scientists at HKUST developed the first bionic eye that replicates the structure of human eyes, but they also drew inspiration from the octopus

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Along with colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley, HKUST scientists have been working on the bionic eye since 2016. (Picture: HKUST)

Published: 5:00am, 10 Jun 2020Updated: 5:00am, 10 Jun 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

During a live-streamed presentation on Tuesday, Professor Fan Zhiyong was holding something that looked like a circuit board with dozens of wires sticking out. But the most important part was the silver sphere sitting on top of the wiry contraption -- a bionic eye.

The device developed by researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is the first to replicate the structure of a human eye. And in the future, it might do more than restore sight to the vision impaired. It could also give us superhuman powers like night vision, Fan said.

Along with another professor named Gu Leilei, Fan leads the team at the university’s Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, where they developed what they call the Electrochemical Eye (EC-Eye). It includes the first 3D artificial retina, according to the scientists. The research, which was published in the scientific journal Nature in May, has been hailed as a breakthrough.

Scientists from HKUST say the EC-Eye not only replicates the structure of a natural eye for the first time, but may actually offer sharper vision than a human eye in the future. (Picture: HKUST)

The eye is one of our most complex organs. In real eyes, the retina is the thin layer of tissue that receives light and converts it into neural signals, sending it to our brains so it can be interpreted as an image. The bionic eye imitates this with an artificial retina using nanowire light sensors.

During the trial, the team connected the nanowire sensors to a bundle of liquid-metal wires that served as “nerves.” Those nerves replicated the image that the eye saw on the “brain” -- a computer screen.

But to say the bionic eye simply replicates human eyes wouldn’t be entirely accurate. Vertebrates like humans have a blind spot in our eyes. Fan and Gu actually sought to improve on evolution by modeling their artificial retina on one without any blind spots. And for that they had to look to the ocean.