A smart device that can help blind people recover part of their vision is about to enter clinical trials in the UK.

The Daily Mail reported on May 31 that the visual device developed by the French company Pixium Vision was approved by the UK Medicines and Health Products Administration on the same day and will be tested by 10 blind people at the Murphyz Eye Hospital in London. . The unit consists of a silicon wafer with 150 electrodes, a black eyecup with a built-in camera, and a portable processor. The patient will first undergo surgery to implant the silicon wafer into the retina, then wear an eye mask, and the built-in camera will take a picture, and the portable processor will convert the picture into an infrared image and return it to the eye mask. The eye mask emits an infrared pulse that activates the electrodes in the retina, stimulating the optic nerve to transmit the image to the brain, allowing the patient to "see" the object. Researchers say animal experiments have shown that this smart vision device can improve the vision of blind mice and is expected to enable blind people to see the letters at the top of the eye chart.

In addition to the UK, clinical trials of this smart device have been carried out in European countries such as France, Germany and Austria.