The United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration has approved Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup, Neuralink, as a “breakthrough device” designation.
Named as ‘Blindsight,’ the device is designed to restore vision in individuals with complete or partial blindness, including those with non-functional optic nerves.
Neuralink, on its X page on Tuesday, wrote: “We have received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA for Blindsight.
” Join us in our quest to bring back sight to those who have lost it. Apply to our Patient Registry and openings on our career page,”
Reports indicated that the FDA awards its breakthrough designation to medical devices that treat or diagnose life-threatening conditions, expediting their development and review.
Musk, while announcing the update, highlighting Blindsight’s potential to restore vision in even the most severe blindness cases on his X social media platform, said: “The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.
Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.
To set expectations correctly, the vision will be at first be low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential to be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.”
The Hearing journal also stated about Neuralink: “The implant is based on a brain-machine interface (BMI) technology, a neural lace technology that acts as a communication bridge between the brain and a wired device. This technology is poised to help those with sensory and motor disorders and other neurological conditions with AI. While research into BMI is still limited, and Neuralink promises to deliver a scalable, high-bandwidth system.
“Neuralink has three necessary components: a link, neural threads, and a charger. The link is a sealed implanted device that stimulates and transmits neural signals. The neural threads are small and flexible threads that contain many biocompatible thin film materials, which have polyamide as a substrate encapsulating a gold thin film trace.”
Peoplesmind
