On Tuesday of each week the US Patent and Trademark (USPTO) issues patents… and this Tuesday Patent No. 8,000,000 was issued to Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., for a visual prosthesis device to enhance visual perception for people who gone blind because of outer retinal degereration. According the the specification, the retina is electrically stimulated to produce visual perceptions of light. The product (the Argus II) is in clinial trials and has received marketing approval in Europe. As explained in the USPTO press release, the invention works as follows:

The system awarded patent number 8,000,000 is designed to bypass the damaged photoreceptors altogether.  A miniature video camera housed in the patient’s glasses sends information to a small computer worn by the patient where it is processed and transformed into instructions transmitted wirelessly to a receiver in an implanted stimulator.  The signals are then sent to an electrode array, attached to the retina, which emits small pulses of electricity.  These electrical pulses are intended to bypass the damaged photoreceptors and stimulate the retina’s remaining cells to transmit the visual information along the optic nerve to the brain.

The patent will be presented to the inventors by Director Kappos at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Sept. 8, 2011.