JOIN USA team, led by Prof Eberhart Zrenner of technology firm Retinal Implant AG, implanted a microchip in 46-year-old Finn Miikka Terho's eye, which has enabled the totally blind man to read letters of alphabet and the time on a clock face.
The new device shows that the damaged light receptor cells in eye can simply be replaced by a microchip; the rest of the image is obtained by the natural eye, British newspaper the 'Daily Express' reported.
In fact, the microchip, smaller than the tip of a pen and containing 1,500 tiny light sensors, fits into a natural space beneath the retina. When an image comes through the lens of the eye it hits the sensors which send an electrical pulse to nerve cells at the back of the eye. These transmit the message to the brain, say the scientists.
The device is powered by a thin cable that runs from the eye, out of the side of the skull and is attached to a battery behind the ear. Experts claim that the pilot study, published in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society B Journal', means the technology behind the device works, is safe and is ready to be tested on many patients in a clinical trial.
Now, a team, led by Prof Robert Maclaren at Oxford University, will conduct the next trial. Up to 12 patients are expected to take part in the British study, due to start next year at King's College Hospital, and the Oxford Eye Hospital.
He said: "This is a big breakthrough, no two ways about it. To take someone who is blind and help them see again is pretty incredible. "The successful testing of this electronic implant in Germany is without doubt truly significant advance. One previously blind patient was able to read his own name with the implant switched on. Until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction."
Prof Maclaren said he was thrilled he could now tell patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition which destroys light cells in the eye, that there was hope ahead after years of having to tell them they would be left blind.
David Head, chief executive of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, also welcomed the news, calling it "a very significant advance". But he said that he wanted patients to realise even this breakthrough would not restore their vision.
He added: "The technology is exciting and hopefully this will advance in the next few years but we have to temper it with reality."