Worldwide, about 3 million persons suffer from Retina Pigmentosa, an eye disease which slowly leads to complete blindness. While retina cells die off, some nerve cells in many cases remain intact. These cells can be stimulated through technical seeing aids such as retina implants. However, power supply and signal transmission through wires incorporate significant hurdles for the patient as well as for designers.

Now the Aachen university clinic and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits (Duisburg, Germany) have developed an implant that not only receives the optical signal through radio waves; also the energy required to supply the circuitry is fed into the implant using electromagnetical fields.

Presently, the device is equipped with 25 stimulating electrodes that are connected with ganglion cells. While the researchers admit that this is far from providing an actual eyesight experience, test persons said they were able to "see" electronically generated patterns or a coarse impression of the images they received.

The technology also helps eye specialist to simplify the implantation of such devices into the human eye. In comparison to wire-bound implants, the wireless device is much easier to implant into the eye and to wear, the university clinic said.

The long-term objective of the researchers is a device that completely restores eyesight. Several local medical technology companies have already launched EpiRet GmbH, a joint venture that plans to commercialize the technology. The next steps will be a device with higher resolution and a camera that feeds its signals to the implant.