Nanoflowers May Enable Blind People To See Again

The newest technological advance for macular degeneration sufferers:

Soon, a special nanoflower may help return the eyesight of people, like those suffering from macular degeneration.

Richard Taylor at the University of Oregon is leading an effort to design a fractal-based retinal implant that will give a new life to blind people.
He is on a quest to grow these special nanoflowers seeded from nano-sized particles of metals that grow or self assemble in a natural process, diffusion limited aggregation.
These will be fractals that mimic and communicate efficiently with neurons.
Taylor says that fractals are “a trademark building block of nature,” objects with irregular curves or shapes, of which any one component seen under magnification is also the same shape.
According to him, trees, clouds, rivers, galaxies, lungs and neurons are fractals. However, today”s commercial electronic chips are not fractals.
When eye surgeons would implant the fractal devices in the eyes of blind patients, interface circuitry happens that would collect light captured by the retina and guide it with almost 100 pc efficiency to neurons for relay to the optic nerve to process vision.
Taylor faces many challenges in his envisioned approach, most important being determining which metals can best go into body without toxicity problems.
“We”re right at the start of this amazing voyage. The ultimate thrill for me will be to go to a blind person and say, we”re developing a chip that one day will help you see again,” Taylor says.


http://news.bioscholar.com/2011/05/nanoflowers-may-enable-blind-people-to-see-again.html

For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can’t

Inspiration after shopping trip - Robot to help out blind shoppers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4509403.stm

Independence with guide dogs and technology:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html

Overview of best designs for the visually impaired:

Packaging for the Blind

Today I went on a field trip to my local supermarkets (Morrisons, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury's) and I was surprised at how few 'blind friendly' products were actually available. Although the packaging of most medical products were imprinted with Braille, astonishingly NO other product had a feature like that.

When I asked a sales assistant why this was the case, he shockingly replied: "Well they are blind, so they don't go shopping anyway." - we need to change this stereotypical idea of 'because blind people can't see they can't do anything.' Because they still want their independence and they still need to eat and require beauty essentials, even though they might need some extra help. If the awareness of their needs was greater, than more products would be available. They represent a niche that isn't catered for yet.