Brain camera could enable blind to see

By CATHERINE MASTERS

A tiny camera wired into the back of the brain could give the blind the gift of sight.

The makers of the device claim it has already enabled a man, blind for 26 years, to read 5cm-high letters from 1.5 metres.

Experts here are excited but cautious about the artificial eye technology announced yesterday by an American biomedical company.

The Foundation for the Blind says it will be extremely expensive, may take years to arrive in New Zealand and that money would be better spent on more basic needs for blind people, such as talking computers.

But Chris Orr, a 46-year-old Auckland man blinded 25 years ago by a shotgun blast, says he would definitely undergo the delicate brain surgery involved: "I do know what I'm missing ..."

The "Dobelle Eye" is touted by its developers - the Dobelle Institute in New York - as an artificial vision system providing independent mobility to blind people.

It uses a tiny television camera and an ultrasonic distance sensor, both mounted on a pair of eyeglasses, the institute said.

The sensors connect through a cable to a miniature computer worn on the person's belt and wired to the brain's visual cortex. Tiny electrodes stimulate the brain cells, resulting in specks of light allowing a blind person to make out large letters and objects.

A 62-year-old man, totally blinded at the age of 36, was able to read 5cm-high letters at a distance of 1.5m, said a report in the Journal of The American Society of Artificial Limbs by the device's developer, Dr William Dobelle.

American experts have also greeted the announcement with a blend of excitement and caution, one calling for additional details to be revealed.

Jane Holden, chief executive of the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind, says the announcement is amazing but not surprising, because technology advances so quickly.

But she said people should keep the device it in its "wow! zone" for a while.

And while many blind New Zealanders would want the device, many others were already independent and would rather have money put into rehabilitation, she said.

"That's reading of braille; that's using a cane; that's using a guide dog; that's using a computer on the Internet; it's using auditory computer systems, voice recognition ...

"For many blind people it would be a totally high-risk, ridiculously unnecessary thing to do," she said.

The other issue was whether the Government or the blind person would pay.

Chris Orr said the Government paid for hip replacement operations - why not brain surgery to help the blind?

He said he would love to see his son's smile, and while the device would not bring him that, it was the first step on the way.

Eye expert Gordon Sanderson, an Otago University lecturer and the foundation's chairman, said the device and surgery could cost upward of $500,000 per person.

He would rather see money put into award-winning "sonic spectacles" invented by a Northland man, Professor Leslie Kay, which enabled blind children to learn to perceive objects in a room.

He believed only a few pairs of the $50,000 spectacles existed in this country.